Ariane Larsen and the Mystery of Forbidden Forest
by 1998Ruby1998
Summary: A harry potter world with another trio and villain. Ariane Larsen, who was a pure-blood witch living like a muggle for years, found herself a world with people like her. But a series of strange events happened in Hogwarts and there was something weird in the forest... (Not a good summary, I guess...)
1. Chapter 1

**I would like to say a big thank you to those who has read my first fanfic: Frozen-Sequel. Because of the length of each chapter, I might not post daily but weekly. But all the same, please continue reading my story! :) For those who have not read my first one, you may as well read it for entertainment, though it may be poorly written.**

**Enjoy!**

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Nearly eleven years had passed and Ariane Larsen had been living joyfully and lavishly on Crescent Road. The sun emerged from behind the clouds and shone at the brass number ten on the Larsen's blue front door. The window of the living room was clean and translucent, showing the quaint warm settings of the room. Just on the mantel-shelf, there were two photos frames. The photos, curiously, were moving. The one on the left was a couple with a baby girl, waving and smiling. The one on the right was having the same content as the other one, with only the baby replaced by a child with similar face.

Ariane was glad that it was a Sunday. During the weekends she liked to stay indoors for the morning and wandered off in the afternoon. Though she had been living in the area since birth, she was not familiar with the environment as the other children in her age. Strangely, wherever she wandered off to, she could easily find herself back to her house without knowing the street names and road signs. There were times when she did something queer that she could not explain.

For the whole morning she had been observing the girl next door, Mandy Parker, who had been studying at the same school at Lilybank Primary School with Ariane since Year 1. Both of them were admitted to Nairn Academy, Mandy was trying out the uniform for the morning, whereas Ariane had no idea why her parents were not buying her any uniform or school books.

The Nairn Academy uniform consisted of a blue shirt and a dark blue Scottish kilt with a black fleece jacket that had a bronze zipper. Ariane thought the whole uniform was low-spirited even though her favourite colour was blue.

There was suddenly a loud tapping noise in the living room.

"Is it Snowy again?" asked Ariane.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Mama, is it Snowy?"

She got out of her bedroom and headed downstairs, finding something strange. It was not her family owl at the living room window. The screech owl used it legs tapped the glass hard, its mouth was holding a letter, written beautifully in ink.

Miss A. Larsen

Bedroom on the Second Floor

10 Crescent Road

Nairn

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. Surprisingly, there was no stamp.

Turning the envelope over with her hands trembling, Ariane saw a blood red wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.

"What was it, dear?" asked Mrs. Larsen.

Mrs. Larsen was a young woman with raven hair, and dark eyes. From her appearance, one could tell she could not be over 35. She bore a striking resemblance with her daughter, only the eyes and age could tell their difference.

"It's a letter, for me," replied Ariane and handed it to her mother.

"What letter?" A voice rang from upstairs.

Mr. Larsen appeared at the stairs, coming downstairs and settled down at the table with his wife. He was slight older than his wife, brunette hair and had the same sapphire eyes with his daughter. His hair was a handsome pompadour and never had his hair out of place. Considered to be handsome by the neighbourhood, he was surprisingly sensible and quiet with politeness, not a sign of arrogance or narcissism.

Ariane handed them the letter and glanced at her parents. Their faces were stiff and serious when they examined the seal, then weak smiles appeared.

"Anne, take a look," said Mrs. Larsen.

Ariane stretched out her hand with doubt at to take the yellowish envelope. She pulled out the letter and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

_of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDARY

Headmaster : Albus Dumbledore

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Dear Miss Larsen,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

_Minerva McGonagall_

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

Questions appeared inside Ariane's mind, clouding her uncomfortably. It took her a while to gain back her sense and whispered, "What's Hogwarts?"

"It's time for you to know the magical world that you should be living in," said Mrs. Larsen. "Finally, the time arrives."

"You mean I am some kind of –witch?"

"Anne, you are a witch," stated Mr. Larsen. "Your mother's a witch, and I am a wizard. We are all magical beings."

There was silence inside the house only the hooting of the family owl, Snowy, rang from the kitchen.

"We—We—are magical beings?" gasped Ariane. "But—But I can't be!"

"You are," said Mrs. Larsen. "Have you ever found yourself made something unexplainable? Especially when scared or angry?"

Ariane looked at the table. Now she came to think of it…chased by a gang of street teenagers, she somehow found her way out of their reach…being scolded by the teacher without a reason, she managed to set fire on the teacher's skirt…Got teased by a boy in her class, she conjured a ferret out of nowhere and made it crept into his trousers…

She looked back at her parents, who were beaming brightly at her.

"Anne, you are a witch," said her mother.

"So what do I have to do?" asked Ariane. "You never tell me anything about magic and that world. I know nothing about it. Do I have to make poisonous apples and give it to someone? Do I have a make a spindle and prick someone's finger? Do I have to make a pumpkin carriage and turn mice into horses?"

"Perhaps we can tell you on the way to Diagon Alley," replied Mr. Larsen. "We need to get you things before school starts."

"Where is it?"

"You'll know tomorrow, and we'll try our best to tell you everything about that world that you are about to face."

"Get Snowy. I need her to deliver the letter." Mrs. Larsen said while getting out a bottle of ink and quilt in the drawer.

"Owl delivery service?" asked Ariane. "Aren't owls only pets?"

"Of course," answered her mother. "If not, why would we want to keep an owl?"

Ariane walked into the kitchen and found Snowy resting on the owl perch.

"Hi, Snowy."

The owl hooted and clicked its beak with affection. Its amber eyes blinked as Ariane stroked the speckled wings. She flew onto Ariane's arm and let Ariane get out of the kitchen.

When Mrs. Larsen finished using her quill, she carefully sealed it with candle wax and placed the letter in Snowy's claws. Snowy hooted and took off, disappeared behind the cotton clouds.

"She knows her way to Hogwarts?" asked Ariane.

"Of course," replied Mrs. Larsen. "She knows it well."


	2. Chapter 2

Early in the morning, Ariane could hear the knocking sound at the door.

"It was a dream," she told herself firmly. "When I wake up, I will be nothing more than a normal girl, not a witch."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

And there's Mama knocking on the door, she thought, while kept on going back to the scene where her parents stated she was a witch. It had been such an interesting dream that Ariane did not want to wake up.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Anne, we have to go," said Mrs. Larsen.

Ariane nodded and went downstairs after she got dressed. Her parents were dining at the table, having pancakes and milk as breakfast.

"Good morning, Mama. Good morning, Papa," chanted Ariane.

"Good morning, my little girl," replied Mr. Larsen, who was reading the Daily Prophet, which the black and white pictures kept moving.

"Where's Diagon Alley anyway, Papa?" asked Ariane, who was determined to know everything before she arrived Hogwarts.

"Charing Cross Road, London."

"Lon—London?" exclaimed Ariane. "How are we going to get there?"

"Of course we are not going to drive for 10 hours!" chuckled Mr. Larsen. "We are going to apparate."

"Apprate?" she repeated the word dumbly, wondering what it meant.

"It is like teleporting," explained Mrs. Larsen. "Takes you only a few seconds to go there."

"How?"

"You'll know when you after studying in Hogwarts for a few years," answered Mrs. Larsen. "But now, we'll clutch you to there. Make sure you hold us tight."

Ariane nodded. She was certainly amazed by all the things in the world where she should belong, but there was a slight hint of worry stirring in her that was unexplainable. After pondering for a while, she decided not to tell.

"Ready?" asked Mr. Larsen when they finished breakfast.

Ariane nodded. She held her parents' hands tight and bit her lip nervously.

She felt a breeze surrounding her, it was like flying in thousands feets high, making her dizzy and unable to see clearly.

"Here we are."

Ariane was facing a tiny dark shabby tavern in front of her. If she had not been looking carefully, she would not have noticed its presence. The people hurrying by did not take a glance at it, their eyes simply slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they could not see the tavern at all. In fact, Ariane felt as if only her family could see it.

"The Leaky Cauldron," Mr. Larsen introduced. "Famous place of connecting Diagon Alley to the Muggle World."

"Muggle?"

"Non-magic folks."

"Like Mandy Parker?"

"Yes."

Before she could ask anything else, she was steered inside.

For a famous tavern, it was dark and old. A few old men were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Ariane's parents; they waved and smiled at him with admiration as if they were celebrities, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "Want some pea soup, Sir?"

"No thanks," replied Mr. Larsen. "I need to get Hogwarts things for my daughter."

"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Ariane, "is this - can this be -?"

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.

"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Ariane Larsen... what an honour."

He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Ariane and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.

"Welcome back, Miss Larsen, welcome back."

Ariane didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at her. The old man with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out.

Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Ariane found herself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Edward Cornfoot, Miss Larsen."

"It's an honour, Miss Larsen."

"So proud to be here with you, Miss Larsen."

"Nice meeting you, Miss Larsen."

After shaking hands with almost everyone in the tavern, Ariane's parents led her through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard.

"Why everyone knows my name?"

"It's a long story," replied Mrs. Larsen. "We'll tell you after we've bought everything."

"Remember, Anne," said Mr. Larsen, while counting the bricks in the wall above the trash can with a long thin wooden stick. "Three up... two across…tap three times…and welcome to Diagon Alley."

The brick he had touched quivered - it wriggled - in the middle, a small hole appeared - it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing a large archway , an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight, making Ariane gasped with surprise.

"Come on, Anne," urged Mrs. Larsen.

They stepped through the archway. Ariane looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.

"We need to get some money first," said Mrs. Larsen.

"Do they use pounds?" asked Ariane, while looking at a shop selling cauldrons.

"No," chuckled Mr. Larsen. "We use Galleons, Sickles and Knuts."

"What are they?"

"Let's get into Gringotts first."

"Gringotts?"

"A wizard bank that is run by goblins."

"Goblins?"

They had reached an inclined pearl white building that towered over the other little shops. Ariane had a peculiar feeling that there was a high security system in the bank and anyone who would steal anything out of it would be ready for death.

She walked into the vast marble hall. Goblins that a head shorter than Ariane were sitting behind long counters, weighting coins in brass scale and examining large gleaming rubies through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. The Larsens made for the counter.

"Good morning," said Mr. Larsen to a goblin in the counter. "We would like to make a withdrawal in vault 637."

"Do you have your key, sir?"

"Yes," said Mr. Larsen while showing the goblin a shiny gold key.

"Gribnok!"

Gribnok was yet another goblin. The Larsens followed Gribnok toward one of the doors leading off the hall. Gribnok held the door open for them. Ariane, who had expected more marble, was awed. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with blazing torches. It sloped precipitously downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Gribnok whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in and were off.

At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Ariane tried to remember, left, right, left, left, right, right, left, but it was almost impossible as there were too many turns that one could not have the possibility to remember unless one had travelled the route twice. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Gribnok wasn't steering.

The cart began gaining speed and scooted at a speed that Ariane could barely endure. Cold air rushed past her, but she managed to keep her eyes wide open. The cavern was dark and deep, unable to see the bottom. Waterfalls were everywhere, and Ariane was sure that they contained special enchantments that could keep thieves away from the treasures. At all sudden, the cart plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. Ariane reckoned she could hear the faint water dripping sounds from the ceiling.

When the cart halted beside a huge black metal door in the passage wall, Ariane got out with her head dizzy. When she gained back consciousness, Gribnok bounced out of the cart and held the lamp slowly to the door, examining a keyhole at the bottom of the heavy door.

"Key, please," said Gribnok.

Mr. Larsen gave him the key and he inserted the key into the hole, and clicking sound rang behind the door.

Ariane had been wondering what the vault was like, and she gasped with amazement when she saw the inside. Inside were mounds of gold coins, heaps of sickles, columns of bronze coins, rubies, sapphires, obsidians, diamonds, all were beyond Ariane's imagination.

"This is our vault," said Mrs. Larsen. "And one day, it will become all yours."

"Mine?" gasped Ariane.

"Yes, all yours."

Mr. Larsen piled some coins into a bag.

"Remember, Anne," explained Mr. Larsen. "Gold ones are Galleons, Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle. This should be more than enough for a few years."

One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Ariane didn't know where to run first now that she had a bag full of money. The amount was more than she had for pocket money.

"Where are we going, Mama?"

"Check the letter."

Ariane took the parchment out of her bag. She unfolded a second piece of paper and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

_of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) _by Miranda Goshawk

_A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot

_Magical Theory_ by Adalbert Waffling

_A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emetic Switch

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ by Phyllida Spore

_Magical Drafts and Potions _by Arsenius Jigger

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ by Newt Scamander

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection _by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

"Are we going to buy books first?" Ariane asked.

"Why not?" said Mr. Larsen.

"Let's go to the Flourish and Blotts," said Mrs. Larsen. "They sold all kinds of books. Maybe you can get some other books in there."

Flourish and Blotts was a bookstore piled and stacked with books. Ariane got her pile of books and wandered off to other bookshelves. She noticed a book named _Hélas, Je me suis Transfiguré mes Pieds_ and an interesting book called Hogwarts, A History.

"Hi," said a girl beside her.

"Hi," replied Ariane, who was a bit shy at this stage.

"Are you a Hogwarts student too?"

Ariane nodded.

She was a girl with dark brown hair and milky complexion. Her hair was smooth and curly like silk, her light brown eyes sparkled with vibrancy, creating a sweet girl impression.

"I am Claudia Walker."

"Ariane Larsen, just call me Anne, with the _ne _at the end."

Claudia gasped with surprise.

"Really?" exclaimed Claudia. "I never thought that I would meet you in here."

"Am I really that famous?"

"Of course! Don't you know anything about yourself?"

Ariane shook her head and smiled embarrassingly.

"Looks like you've met a new friend."

Ariane turned around and saw a couple behind her, smiling.

"Mom, look! She's Ariane Larsen!"

The woman smiled friendlily and shook hands with Ariane. She had blonde hair that reached her shoulders and green eyes that looked like emerald. The man beside her had dark brown hair that was almost like ebony, his light brown eyes shone brightly with wits.

"Anne, have you decided buying which book?" asked Mrs. Larsen downstairs.

"These two!" replied Ariane as her mother walked upstairs. She gave her mother the books immediately.

"Hi, Catriona," said Mrs. Walker.

"Hi, Lorna. So this is your daughter Claudia."

Ariane was puzzled. She had never met the Walkers, but why had her mother known them?

"Let's have a chat at the Leaky Cauldron," suggested Mr. Walker.

"Ariane, your father has bought you the sets and the books. All you need to buy is your wand, uniform and pet. Can you handle this?" asked Mrs. Larsen.

"Of course, Claudia knows the way. She needs to buy them too," said Mrs. Walker.

"See you at the Leaky Cauldron, okay?" asked Mrs. Walker.

The girls nodded and hurried off to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.

Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.

"Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when the girls started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."

In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Ariane and Claudia on the stools next to him) slipped a long robes over their heads, and began to pin them to the right length.

"Hello, Hogwarts too?" asked the boy.

He stroked his blonde hair while waiting for the answer.

The girls nodded with curiosity, waiting for him to continue the conversation.

"My father's in that book store buying the books and mother's at the Ollivanders," said the boy. He was certainly not satisfied being here. "I'm going to drag them to the Quality Quidditch Supplies, I can't really see why first years aren't allowed to have racing brooms. I think I will make father into buying one and smuggle it in Hogwarts somehow."

Ariane gave him a weak smile, which the boy took it as a compliment.

"Have you got your own broom?" The boy went on.

"No," said Ariane.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No," Ariane said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch was.

"I do - Father says it's a sin if I'm not picked to play for my house, and of course, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No," said Ariane, who was blushing by the minute.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin for sure, all our family have been - imagine being in that dumb Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

Ariane and Claudia did not know what to say.

"Are your parents our kind?" asked the boy.

Claudia obviously did not want to answer the question.

"Witch and wizards, if that's what you mean."

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up in our world. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your name, anyway?"

But before the girls could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dears," and Ariane smiled politely at the boy and walked out of the store with Claudia.

"See you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the bored boy.

They reached the Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour at the other side for ice creams. Florean, who had heard of Ariane, generously gave Ariane a free chocolate mint ice cream.

"What's Quidditch?" asked Ariane.

"It's a ball game in which you ride brooms around and get the Quaffle into three hoops. The Quaffle is a big red ball and 10 points for each goal," replied Claudia, who was eating a chocolate chip ice cream.

"And what are Hufflepuff and Slytherin?"

"Houses in Hogwarts. Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the kind, Ravenclaw for the smart and Slytherin are open for pure-bloods mostly."

"What are pure-bloods?"

"Wizards or witches who do not have any muggle relations. Keeping their blood clean from muggles," replied Claudia, who had finished her ice cream. "I'm half, mom's a muggle-born. I've heard that you're pure-blood."

"Really?"

"But blood purity does not make much difference, I'd say."

Ariane nodded and the two headed down to the far end of Diagon Alley.

"That's the Ollivanders, the place for selling wands," said Claudia.

The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair. The shop was like an old library which was abandoned for years. There were thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling and some of them were covered with dust. For some reason, Ariane felt scared when she peered into the dark end of the shelves, which was so dark that looked like a bottomless pit.

"Good afternoon," said a soft mysterious voice. The girls jumped as an old man glided out to the counter with a wooden stair.

The old man had silver hair and wide pale eyes shining like stars through the gloom of the shop.

"Ah, yes," said the man. "I know I would be meeting you two soon. Claudia Walker and Ariane Larsen."

He walked towards the two and his eyes shone even brighter.

"It seems only yesterday when your parents came here for their first wand, Miss Larsen," said Ollivander. "Beech and unicorn hair, swishy, good for charms."

He came so close that Ariane did not dare to blink.

"Your father favours another one, aspen and phoenix feather, yielding. Smart wand, I'd say," said Ollivander. "On the other hand, your mother got an alder with unicorn hair, Miss Walker. And your father chooses cedar and dragon heartstrings."

Ariane and Claudia glanced at each other, not knowing what to say. Mr. Ollivander looked at Ariane intently, with hints of sorrow.

"And yes, the wand that causes disaster. Yew, thirteen inches. Very powerful…so powerful that it goes beyond imaginations."

He pulled out a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Er—Right handed," said Ariane.

"Hold out your arms." He measured them individually from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Mr. Ollivander searched through the shelves, taking down boxes.

"Try this one, Miss Larsen. Walnut and unicorn, eleven inches, supple. And you, Miss Walker, Chestnut and dragon heartstrings, ten and a half inches, rigid. Just give it wave."

Claudia and Ariane took the wands and waved for a bit, but Mr. Ollivander quickly snatched them back.

"Strange, walnut should be well…but never mind. Hazel and unicorn, eight and three quarters inches long, nice and springy, Miss Larsen. And you, Miss Walker, willow and unicorn, ten and a quarter inches, surprisingly swishy, nice for charm work."

Once Ariane touched the wand, Mr. Ollivander snatched it back again, while the wand in Claudia's hand shot out blue sparkles.

"Nice pair," said Mr. Ollivander, while putting Claudia's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper. "And you, Miss Larsen, we'll find you the most suitable wand."

He took out a pile of boxes and made Ariane tried them all out.

"Tricky customers? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere—I wonder—yes, why not this unusual combination—cypress and unicorn hair, twelve inches, nice and supple."

Just when Ariane got hold of the wand, a warm surge of heat flew through her veins and to each part of her body. As she swished it, the wand shot out a stream of blue light and exploded at the ceiling, sparkles fell like snowflakes and Ariane gasped.

"Yes, the perfect pair!" cried Mr. Ollivander. "Curious, curious…"

"Sorry, what's so curious?" asked Ariane.

""I remember every wand I've ever sold, Miss Larsen. The great medieval wandmaker, Geraint Ollivander, said he was always honoured to match a cypress wand, for he knew the witch or wizard before him would die a heroic death."

Ariane gulped as she heard the word 'death'.

"Yes, noble wand, I'd say."

Ariane shivered. She wasn't sure she liked Mr. Ollivander too much. She paid seven gold Galleons for her wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

"He's a bit mysterious," said Ariane.

"Probably because he's a wandmaker," said Claudia. "Would you mind if we go to Magical Menagerie? I want to get myself a pet."

Ariane nodded and the girls past by a second-hand robe shop and a joke shop. Magical Menagerie was a crowded place selling different kinds of pets, with cats of every colours, custard-coloured furballs and shell animals of different sizes.

"Hey, look at this one!" exclaimed Claudia as she held a small custard furball in her hand. "It's a puffskein!"

"What does it eat?" asked Ariane.

"Anything from leftovers to spiders, easy to take care."

The furball purred as Claudia stroked it.

"I'm going for the cats." Suggested Ariane.

She looked through the cages and found a seal point Siamese kitten. She gently picked it up and cuddled it. The cat purred and nuzzled her in return of affection.

"Hello, ladies, want to buy them?" asked the attendant at the counter.

"Yes, please."

Ariane paid eleven Galleons and Claudia paid six Galleons for her puffskein. The two left the shop and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron.

"I'm going to name her Buttercup," said Claudia while petting the puffskein.

"Mine would be Midnight, look at her eyes!" said Ariane while holding her cat.

When the two get back to the Leaky Cauldron, Mrs. Walker told them that Ariane's parents were off for a while and would return after a couple of minutes. So the two sat down and relaxed.

"Why is everyone looking at me with surprise?" asked Ariane.

"You don't know your history?" asked Claudia.

"Mama and Papa never tell me anything, not until I get my letter," replied Ariane.

"There's a wizard, named—named—"

"Named what?" asked Ariane.

"I really don't want to talk about him…"

"Spell it out."

"I think not," said Claudia and she shuddered. "Thinking of him makes me ill. Now, I just say that once, it's…"

Ariane listened intently to Claudia's whisper.

"It's Seredemort," whispered Claudia. "Don't make it mentioned again. Now this You-Know-Who was a Slytherin some decades ago, and he went bad after graduation. He killed tons of witches and wizards, mostly half-bloods and Muggle-borns family, and of course, those who defy him will have the same ending."

"So it's like Hitler," said Ariane.

"Who?"

"Never mind," replied Ariane quickly. "So what happened then?"

"According to my parents said, there was the Quiddtich World Cup in Devon, it is held every four years so everyone from different countries came to watch the competition that day. Our families were there too, we were three then, but I can't remember much. It should be Spanish and Luxembourg for that day."

"It was some national competition?"

"Yeah," replied Claudia. "Anyway, the Death Eaters—"

"Death Eaters?"

"Some kind of dark wizards that are henchmen of You-Know-Who," answered Claudia, who was frowning badly. "They sent out the Dark Mark of You-Know-Who in the sky, burnt the tents and killed the non-pure-blood wizards. Many died because of that. The Aurors and Hit wizards of the Ministry of Magic, who are responsible for catching dark wizards, came and battled with them. My parents, though working in Administrative Registration Department, were summoned to battle."

"That looks horrible," commented Ariane. "What about my parents? They never told me anything about their job."

"Mom says your parents work in Wizengamot, an office of hearings and legal proceedings," explained Claudia. "That night, your parents caught many dark wizards, more than the Aurors and Hit wizards. Then they fled with you into the forest, and You-Know-Who pursued your family."

"He wants to kill me."

"Of course. Your parents caught tons of his sidekicks! But when he shot the killing curse on you, somehow you created a powerful shield and the curse blew back on him. He vanished then."

"I made a shield and indirectly killed You-Know-Who?" asked Ariane. "But I don't know any magic, how can I make one?"

"That's the mystery!" exclaimed Claudia. "No one has ever invented a curse or a shield that can block the killing curse, but you made one."

"So where's You-Know-Who then? I mean now."

"No one knows. Some says he died, but Mom and Dad says he never dies, he is only too weak to kill again. And he's hiding somewhere to regain his power."

Ariane shuddered at the idea. Then she remembered a green flash shooting at her, the cry was cold and threatening, and a blinding blue light shrouded around her. But no matter how hard she tried, she had forgotten what had happened since then.

"So probably that's why Mama and Papa never tell me a thing about this world."

"Muggles' world only have guns and stuff, you can block them by wearing amours. But no matter how much you wore, you can never survive from killing curse. But then you were just a toddler, and you lived. He killed tons of good wizarding families, everyone died, except you and your parents."

"But everyone thinks I'm special, but I don't even remember what I am famous for."

"Don't worry, you'll get used to this world soon."

Mr. and Mrs. Larsen came back to pick up Ariane. They bade farewell to the Walkers and headed out of the Leaky Cauldron.

"See you soon!" said Claudia, who followed her parents back to the Diagon Alley.

Ariane apparated back to her home with her parents and she stayed wide awake for the whole night, thinking about what Claudia had said in the Leaky Cauldron.


	3. Chapter 3

Ariane kept to her room last month, with her new cat for company. Her school books were interesting, and she tried to remember a few spells and potions. She read her books until midnight, Midnight coming in and out of the open window as she pleased. She kept roaming around the community and would come back before dawn.

Early at dawn on the first day of September, Ariane woke up and went towards the window. Midnight was snoozing on Ariane's bed and swayed her tail tip slowly, purring with tranquillity.

"Midnight, we'll going to Hogwarts soon," said Ariane, who was looking at the dark blue sky.

It was still five in the morning, there were only a few people awake and walking at the streets quietly. The whole city was asleep in its cradle of mist, waiting until the sun emerges from behind the horizon.

Midnight gave her a lazy meow and went back to sleep. Ariane did not want to lie on her bed, so she flipped over the course books and started to have a quick read.

Some of the words were written in Latin in which Ariane could only understand a little. _A History of Magic _interested her for a bit, the author had written with detailed description of the magical world from old days to medieval and up until nowadays, although she was surprised to find out a medieval witch named Wendelin the Weird loved being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught for forty-seven times.

She had been wondering what Hogwarts looked like. The journey of Diagon Alley had already amused her a lot. Wands, spells, flying brooms, everything was beyond her imagination.

When the alarm clock rang at half past eight, she got dressed and went down to the dining room, where she found her mother frying pancakes.

"Good morning, Anne."

"Good morning, Mama."

"Your pancakes," said Mrs. Larsen while placing the cakes onto the plate. "Want some syrup and butter?"

"Yes, please."

Mrs. Larsen gave her the bottle of syrup and the block of butter. Carefully, she cut a slice of butter with the silver butter knife and poured some syrup onto the steaming pancakes. She watched the butter melted patiently, while her father apparated back to the house suddenly.

"Albert, anything special?" asked Mrs. Larsen.

"Just reminding us there's a hearing this afternoon, Amelia was nice enough to remind us to arrive thirty minutes before it starts. Fudge's serious about that."

"We ought to thank her when we get there," added Mrs. Larsen, who had finished brewing her coffee and gave it to her husband.

"What was the Wizengamot looks like?" asked Ariane.

"Judiciary area," replied Mrs. Larsen. "It's like the muggles' court. But I don't think you would want to enter it during your life as a Hogwarts student."

"Why?"

"If you get in there, either you perform magic twice in the muggle world or you have fired curses at someone and make that person seriously injured," replied Mr. Larsen, who was drinking his coffee deeply.

"But I am sure you would want to work in our department," added Mrs. Larsen. "Paperwork and stuff like hearings, you would love it."

Ariane nodded as finished her meal quickly. Midnight came downstairs and jumped onto the table, drinking milk from Ariane's cup.

"Aren't cats not supposed to drink anything except water?" asked Ariane.

"Not except for magical cats like Midnight," explained Mrs. Larsen. "They are different from normal cats, though muggle cats are still considered to be magical in our world."

Midnight meowed for agreement, and finished the milk quickly.

"Do you need some milk, dear?" asked Mrs. Larsen.

"No thanks, water is fine."

Midnight leapt onto the kitchen table and ate her bowl of tuna, occasionally giving purrs. Ariane was wondering how she should travel to Hogwarts. It was not possible to apparate to Hogwarts as the book said. But Hogwarts were most commonly said to be in somewhere of Scotland, could she took some public transport to get there?

"Mama, how do we go to Hogwarts?" asked Ariane.

"We'll go to London, the King Cross Station, platform nine and three-quarters," replied Mrs. Larsen, who was cleaning up the dishes with a wave of her wand.

"Platform nine and three-quarters?" asked Ariane with disbelieve.

"Muggle trains can't get to Hogwarts," explained Mr. Larsen. "Anyway, there's only two times you can see the train for the scholastic year. One is from London and the other one is from Hogwarts."

"Unless you get kicked out from Hogwarts," said Mrs. Larsen. "But I reckon no one has ever been expelled from Hogwarts, not ever since Dumbledore became the headmaster."

"Dumbledore?" asked Ariane. "Is he the—"

"Albus Dumbledore," said Mr. Larsen. "The wisest and the best wizard ever met."

"So good that You-Know-Who fears?"

Mrs. Larsen shuddered a little when she heard the phrase.

"Of course," replied Mr. Larsen. "No one can be harmed under the eyes of Dumbledore."

"Besides Gringotts, Hogwarts is the safest place in the wizarding world," added Mrs. Larsen.

Ariane started to pack her luggage. The Hogwarts luggage was a large leathered brown box which was big enough to put everything a student needed, even had more rooms for fitting some other books and stuff. She carefully placed the uniform on the top, with her robes neatly placed on top of everything.

"When does the train leaves?" asked Ariane.

"Eleven sharp. You'll arrive at Hogwarts at six," answered Mrs. Larsen. "Got your ticket?"

"Yeah," said Ariane, while examining the white ticket.

The ticket was no different from normal train tickets, only the platform number and destination could tell the difference.

"Are you ready for the journey to King Cross?" asked Mrs. Larsen.

Ariane nodded and picked up Midnight in order to place her back into the cage. Midnight was obviously dissatisfied with the arrangement. She growled with complaint and squirmed in the cage, kept biting the cage door bars for a while.

"Midnight, I will promise to let you out when I get on the train," said Ariane, while placing the cage onto her luggage.

The family apparated to King Cross Station. Mr. Larsen helped Ariane place the trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station. Ariane checked the platform, there was a big plastic number nine over on platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.

According to the large clock over the arrivals board, she had twenty minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and she had no idea how to do it.

"Papa, is there really a platform nine and three-quarters?" asked Ariane.

"Remember, Anne," said Mr. Larsen. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop or panic or you'll really crash. Just run, okay? Don't be afraid to get bumped into the wall."

"But it does look like a wall."

"Shall we do it together?" asked Mr. Larsen.

Ariane nodded and the family started to walk toward it. People jostled her on their way to platforms nine and ten. Ariane and her parents walked more quickly. She was going to smash right into that barrier and then she'd be in trouble—

She did not crash…she was running in a dark place…then she went to a platform. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock. Ariane looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, she had done it.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.

The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Ariane pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat.

"Go find a compartment before everywhere is full," said Mr. Larsen.

"Okay," said Ariane.

"We have to go now, we need to prepare for the hearing," said Mr. Larsen. "Are you sure you can handle everything?"

"I think so," replied Ariane, who was looking at the bustling platform.

"Albert, I think we can leave a bit later," said Mrs. Larsen. "She's only a first year."

"Can't," said Mr. Larsen. "We cannot risk being blamed and Fudge would definitely scowl with no reason."

"Goodbye, Ariane," said Mrs. Larsen and she hugged her daughter. "Have a good term."

"We will let Snowy carry things over tomorrow morning," said Mr. Larsen.

Ariane nodded and waved at her parents. With a blink of the eye, there was a crack and they were gone.

"Mom, we'll be alright—"said a tall brown-haired twin in the crowd .

"I don't want to send howlers every year!" snapped his mother.

"But you have done it for three years—" said the other twin.

"Every school day—"

"Every morning—"

"Almost every second—"

"Stop it!" exclaimed their mother. "Wilfred and Gilbert Fairretz!"

"Don't worry, we'll send you a Hogwarts library bookshelf tomorrow!"

"It's not funny," snapped their mother. "I mean it."

"Alright—"

Ariane walked through the crowds and passed through a blonde hair boy with freckles saying, "Mom, I've lost my puffskein again."

"Oh, not again, Daniel," she heard a lady sigh.

"Hey, Anne!"

"Hi, Claudia!"

Both of them smiled politely and tried to find a compartment.

"Need help?" asked a twin that Ariane just met at the platform.

"Yes, please," replied Ariane.

"Hey, Gil! Come on and help!"

With the twins' help, Ariane and Claudia's trunks were at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment. Midnight jumped from her cage and leapt onto Ariane's shoulder, nuzzling her cheek.

"Thank you," said Ariane.

"Are you—" said the first twin.

"She is," said the other twin. "Is she?"

"Who?" asked Ariane.

"Ariane Larsen," chanted the twins.

"Yeah," said Ariane.

"See you!"

The two twins disappeared around the corner.

"Told you," said Claudia. "You're the most famous witch in these years."

"But I know I few spells," said Ariane. "I even don't know which house I will be sorted into."

"I know I'll be Ravenclaw, like my parents. I've heard that yours are from Ravenclaw too. I suppose Gryffindor won't too bad. And I know I would be bullied easily in Slytherin."

"Why?"

"Slytherin is for pure-bloods, not half-bloods like me. I don't think there's anyone in Slytherin is muggle-borns. Occasionally there are a few half-blood, but not many."

"Slytherins aren't that bad, are they?"

"Can't really tell. Merlin's a Slytherin and everyone knows he's a great wizard of all times," replied Claudia, who was stroking Buttercup. "Slytherins aren't all bad, but you have to be careful, because they care a lot about winning and competitions."

Ariane nodded, and the door of the compartment slid open. A boy with dirty blonde hair came in. He had a smart and cheerful looking face with blue eyes that were like the ocean. His trunk was placed onto the ground, with a screech owl on his shoulder, hooted softly.

"May I settle down here?" asked the boy with politeness. "Everywhere else is full."

"Sure," replied Claudia.

Together, the three managed to place the trunk at the corner. The boy smiled politely and sat down.

A whistle sounded. Then the train began to move. Ariane could see parents waving at their children and siblings, half laughing and crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then they fell back and waved.

Ariane watched the twins' mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed quickly past the window, then the train was running in a field with no one at sight.

"I'm Hugo Higgins," introduced the boy. "I'm from a muggle-born family."

"I'm half," said Claudia. "Claudia Walker."

"I'm pure," said Ariane. "Ariane Larsen, just Anne with a _ne_ is fine."

"Wow," gasped the boy. "You must have known much magic!"

"Actually no," said Ariane. "I live like a muggle for years until I receive the letter."

"Mom just insisted to drive to King Cross," said Claudia. "You need at least an hour and half to drive down to Harlow then to London."

"I live in Wembley," said Hugo. "Takes me half an hour to get here."

"I live in Nairn," said Ariane quietly. "But I apparate here, so it only takes me a few seconds."

"But you don't have the Scottish accent," said Hugo.

"I don't know, but Mama and Papa don't have the accent, I guess she just move to Nairn for some reason," said Ariane.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a boy with straight light blonde hair came in. His light brown eyes flashed across the room and a smile appeared on his face.

"Have you seen a puffskein?" asked the boy. "A boy named Daniel lost one."

"No," replied Claudia. "That's my puffskein."

Buttercup gave out a calming purr and nuzzled Claudia's hands.

"Oh," said the boy. "Sorry to bother you, but if you see one, please give it back to Daniel."

"We will," said Claudia.

He left.

"How could lose a puffskein?" asked Hugo. "That doesn't seem sensible."

The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.

The compartment door slid open again, but it was not the blonde hair boy.

Three boys entered, and Ariane recognized the middle one at once: it was the boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Ariane with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.

"So you're really Ariane Larsen?" asked the boy.

"Yes," asked Ariane.

She was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely despicable. Standing on either side of the boy, they looked like bodyguards.

"Oh, this is Glupp and Durak," said the boy, noticing where Ariane was looking. "My bodyguards. And I'm Maure, Lewis Maure."

Ariane smiled politely, waiting for his speech. Midnight hid behind Ariane's back, peering out with caution.

"I just come around to see if that's you," said Maure. "Hope to see you in Slytherin. It's the best, and probably you're friends are not noble enough to enter the house."

The boys left.

"He's so arrogant!" exclaimed Claudia. "And rude."

"I've heard the Maure's one of the oldest wizarding families in the world," explained Hugo. "Hubert says his family does not need any excuses to be in the inner circle of You-Know-Who."

"Hubert?" asked Ariane.

"My brother," replied Hugo. "He's working as a curse-breaker in Gringotts."

"Curse-breaker?"

"They go into ancient tombs and pyramids to bring gold back to Gringotts," explained Hugo. "It's archaeologist's job, only you have to bring treasure away."

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Ariane bought some Mars Bars, Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. She paid six Sickles and eleven Knutz for the snacks.

"What are these?" Ariane asked Claudia, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" She was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.

"No," said Hugo. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Circe."

"I have three of them," said Claudia. "Have you got Clagg? Swap one with you."

"What?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got only about fifty, but I haven't got Circe or Sweeting."

She unwrapped her Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half- moon spectacles, had a long, crooked nose, and wavy silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.

"So this is Dumbledore!" exclaimed Ariane.

"Yep, our headmaster," said Claudia. "Can I get a frog, I might get Wright—"

Ariane turned over the card and read:

ABLUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

She turned the card back over and saw, to her astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.

"He's gone!"

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Hugo. "He'll be back. No, I've got Oddball again and I've got about three of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."

She got a few cards and she picked up a bag of Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

"You ought to be careful with that," said Claudia. "They do mean every flavour, not just the muggle's normal flavours, but also fresh parchment, cat food, and sometimes earthworm and earwax flavours."

Ariane took out a brown bean and examined it, which Midnight sniffed it with curiosity.

"That could be dog food, chocolate, beef casserole or Christmas pudding," said Hugo. "To be honest, dog food is the worst of them all, but not the worst of all flavours."

Ariane took a nibble and licked her lips as the Christmas pudding taste filled her mouth. She also had cheese, toast, sardine, cheese, sausage, and was even brave enough to try a pink bean with dark red strips that Hugo did not dare to touch, which turned out to be prawn.

After Ariane finished the last pastry on the table, she peered out of the window. It was getting dark. She could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

They pulled out their robes, Ariane's was a bit long, nearly reaching her ankles.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Ariane tried to put Midnight back to her cage, but she kept meowing and banging the cage door.

"I think if you leave her here, she will definitely get loose and scare everyone," said Claudia.

Ariane sighed and picked up her cat. Midnight nuzzled her and rested on Ariane's shoulder.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Ariane shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a loud voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! I'm Hagrid, and firs' years over here!"

A giant of a man was standing in front of them, carrying a huge bright lamp. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Ariane thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much on the journey. Daniel, the boy who kept losing his puffskein, sniffed once or twice.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Ariane, Claudia and Hugo were followed into their boat by Daniel. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your puffskein?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Binky!" cried Daniel blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer puffskein?"

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.


	4. Chapter 4

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Ariane's first thought was that she was to be respected and never should be disappointed.

"Firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so huge that it could almost fit Ariane's house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a spectacular marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. Ariane noticed the portraits on the wall were moving and waving as them as if they were alive. She could feel the stairs underneath her shifting softly, trying to move to another place once the place was cleared. They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall stopped the first years at the entrance of the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously, wondering what could be behind the big wooden door.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Now, while you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you house points. Any rule breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup. The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily."

Professor McGonagall went inside the hall, but all Ariane could see was bright glistening lights in the hall.

"How exactly do we get sorted?" Ariane asked Claudia.

"Mom and Dad never tell me," replied Claudia. "They say it is a surprise for me."

"Hubert says all we need to do is to sit on the stool and try on the hat," said Hubert. "That does not sound like any sorting, but I trust my brother. And probably we need to do some tests too."

Ariane's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? She only knew a few spells. She hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived. Hugo was muttering quickly about the spells and wondered which spell he should use. Her eyes fixed on the great door, thinking that Professor McGonagall could come back in any minute.

Professor McGonagall had returned with a serious and strict face.

"We are ready for you now," said Professor McGonagall.

Ariane got into a line behind a girl with red hair, with Claudia behind her, and walked forward as the door swung open.

Ariane looked up to the Great Hall ceiling, she had never imagined such luxurious and splendid place. Thousands of lit candles were floating in midair over the four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, there were ghosts shining misty silver and waved at them. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Ariane looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.

"When I call your name, you will come forth, I shall place the sorting hat on your head, and you will be sorted into your houses," said Professor McGonagall. "Ervin Albert!"

A brown haired boy stumbled out of the line, and sat on the stool. Professor McGonagall placed an old dusty hat on her head and the hall became silent. The hat suddenly moved and after a moment of pause—

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted that hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Ervin went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Ariane saw a plump friendly ghost waving merrily at him.

"Catharina Alles!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted that hat again, and Catharina scuttled off to sit next to Ervin.

"Paloma Balough!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Paloma as she joined them, Ariane could see the twins clapping loudly.

Brian Barney went into Ravenclaw too, but Helena Burns became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers.

When Daniel Crawford, the boy who kept losing his puffskein, was called, he stumbled out and sat on the stool with a worried face, it took long enough for the hat to decide him to be a Ravenclaw.

Louis Emerson became the first Slytherin. The other houses just clapped with politeness and smiled weakly. Some, Ariane reckoned, were glaring and hissing at the new Slytherin.

"Kylie Ethan!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Kimberly Farrow, the red haired girl next to Ariane in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared her a Gryffindor.

Diana Green, a tall beautiful girl who had green eyes and platinum blonde hair, became a new Slytherin. Hugo whispered to Ariane that her parents were having great influences in the ministry and everyone respected the family with fear. Ariane was not sure about that, but she still clapped as Brianna Haynes joined the Ravenclaw.

"Looks like we have fewer Ravenclaws this year," said Claudia. "Only one more than Slytherin and Hufflepuff."

"Gryffindor got a whole bunch," said Hugo. "Wondering why Slytherin and Ravenclaw always get the fewest students in these years, that's what Hubert always says."

A horrible thought struck Ariane. What if she wasn't chosen at all? What if she just sat there with the hat over her eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off her head and said there had obviously been a mistake and she'd better get back on the train?

"Does anyone never get sorted and is sent back to the train?" asked Ariane.

"I don't think so," replied Claudia. "Dad says the ministry keep track of wizards and witches since born, they have a highly detailed and intelligent record in the ministry."

"Hugo Huggins!"

Hugo went up to the stool and placed the hat on his head.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Gleefully, he put down his hat and settled down beside Brianna. Ariane smiled at him as congratulation.

"Michael Larkin!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Ariane Larsen!"

As Ariane stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"Larsen, did she say?"

"_The_ Ariane Larsen?"

"Is that really her?"

She sat on the stool with worries as the hat covered her eyes.

"Hmm…A bright mind I can see," whispered a small voice in her ears. "Oh my, this is rare…such talent….interesting…"

Ariane gulped and thought, place me in somewhere I can live well.

"Really?" said the small voice. "Your mind is not designed to be in Hufflepuff, but what about the other three houses? There's courage in you, quick wits, and ambition to prove yourself worthy…"

Ravenclaw please, Ariane thought.

"So you don't like Gryffindor, but what about Slytherin, you have the Slytherin in you, and Slytherin would lead you all the way to success—no? Better be RAVENCLAW!"

Ariane heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. She took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Ravenclaw table. She was so relieved to have been chosen and put in Ravenclaw, she hardly noticed that she was getting the loudest cheer yet. The Fairretz twins yelled, "We've got Larsen! We've got Larsen!"

She could now see the High Table properly now. In the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Ariane recognized him at once from the card she'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts, which reminded her of Ollivander's misty silver eyes.

Now there were fifteen people left. She could see a slightly disappointed face of Maure. Feeling awkward, she smiled at him and looked back at Professor McGonagall.

"Lewis Maure."

Maure swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"

Maure went to join his friends Glupp and Durak, looking pleased with himself.

"Joanne Nassou!"

A light ginger blonde haired girl walked up to the stool. She had a sweet face and Ariane could leave her eyes off her. She sprinted like a little child to the stool and once the hat touched her, it announced her as a Ravenclaw immediately. She happily leapt to the Ravenclaw's table and sat beside Ariane.

A few students entered Hufflepuff and Slytherin, only William Pavel made it into Gryffindor. There were only three left.

"Claudia Walker!"

Claudia sat on the stool nervously and stared at Ariane. It took a while before the hat decided her to be a Ravenclaw. She sat opposite to Ariane and smiled brightly.

Elliot Yates joined Slytherin and the sorting was finished as Jenny Zarubin went to the Hufflepuff table.

Professor McGonagall dinged her golden goblet for thrice with her spoon.

"Your attention, please," said Professor McGonagall, and the hall went silence.

Professor Dumbledore stood up and lifted his hands.

"Let the feast…begin."

Ariane's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of her were now piled with food. She had never seen so many things she liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

Despite having parents who worked in the ministry, Ariane never had such lavish feast. Though she was hungry, Ariane did not take a bit of everything. Instead, she took a small pile of roast potatoes and a few bits of lamb chops.

"Good evening," said a pearly white ghost behind Ariane.

"Are you the Grey Lady?" asked Hugo.

"Yes."

She looked at Ariane with love as though she had known her.

"Have I seen you before?" asked Ariane.

"No, but I have," replied the Grey Lady, who glided slowly to the wall and disappeared.

"Is she always like this?" asked Ariane.

"My brother says she is a bit pessimistic and sorrowful, but she is always gladly to help out, especially when we get lost," answered Hugo, who was eating his pork chops.

"It seems that Ravenclaw is having the least student," said Ariane.

"I've made count," said Paloma. "Forty students, eleven went to Gryffindor, ten to Slytherin, only nine of us in Ravenclaw."

"I thought it would be evenly distributed," said Claudia.

"Of course not, Ravenclaw is always known having fewer students," said Brian. "My father says in his years, there were only five students going to Ravenclaw. Most of them end up in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor."

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding –

As Ariane helped herself an apple pie, the talk turned to their family.

"I'm half," said a boy named Leo Shaw, who had raven hair that was slightly darker than Ariane's. "Dad's a witch, mom's a muggle, shocked her nastily when I made the grass in my backyard grow to a meter tall one day."

The others laughed.

"My parents were from wizarding family," said Daniel. "But they have always though I am a squib."

"What's a squib?" asked Ariane.

"Those who are from wizarding family but without or have low magic ability that no magic schools recognize them," said Leo.

"Dad always tries to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me. Once he tried to push me into River Humber and I nearly got drown. He rescued me a few minutes later, realizing that my magic is not coming out—children always make some magic out when reaching six or seven, but nothing happened to me until nine. Dad was at the balcony of the guildhall, and I was at the fences, watching the streets. Then Mom offered Dad some treacle tarts and he accidentally knocked me off the balcony. I curled myself up and landed on ground with both of my feet. They were all pleased and crying hard when I waved back at them. Dad was so proud that he bought me my puffskein. He said he really wanted to throw into Loch Ness and let the kelpie finish me off if I still could not do any magic."

Leo laughed, and so did the others.

"What about you Claudia?"

"I just made my teacher on fire like a phoenix when I was seven because she was picking on me, her dress and hair turned into ashes after that, and I received a warning letter and nearly expelled me—made me stand at the banks of River Thames for a week, holding a board saying 'I got punished because I set my teacher on fire'."

Everyone was unable to control their laughter. Ariane smiled at the experience of her friends. She was not sure if hers was something normal as it was too astonishing. The memory started when she was three, playing at the road. It was ever so quiet, not a human at sight, she was sitting with boredom, and out of nowhere, a ball rolled towards her. She did not hold the ball like what other children would do. Instead, she used her mind to make it float. It floated at her will, but she could not explain how. Then she began to make animals bring her toys, and she found her way keeping things levitating. As the incidents were unexplainable and impossible for any of her friends to do it, she kept it secret, even from her parents.

Starting to feel warm and sleepy, Ariane looked up at the High Table, Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Next to them was a tall thin man talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.

The hooked nose teacher looked straight into Ariane's eyes, and she had a peculiar feeling that she had known him before. His eyes were looking at her with a mixture of yearning and misery.

"Hugo, do you know who that teacher is?" she asked Hugo while pointing at the teacher.

"That's Professor Snape, he teaches Potions. And the one talking to him is Professor Storotte, who is always stuttering like a mouse. Everyone—I mean all students being taught by Snape know he is after Storotte's job. He knows an awful lot of Dark Arts. And my brother says you never want to get into trouble because of him, he'll make you suffer."

Ariane did not dare to look into Snape's eyes again, so she kept staring at her plate, which was clean and sparkling.

At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahern - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you."

"This year, we are honoured to have Professor Storotte as our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"I have been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

"First years should note that there is a curfew everyday for all pupils, no students are allowed to escape from the rule except for those with special permission or reason. Points would be taken off if found so, and a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at the direction of the twins. The twins were obviously taking pride of their 'achievements', beaming back at Dumbledore.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the Forbidden Forest is like always, out of bounds. And especially for this year to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

A few laughed, and Ariane noticed the hall was very quiet.

"What does he mean?" she asked Hugo.

"My brother says Dumbledore usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere—the forest is full of beasts. But it is always out of bounds with no exception, and I hear the prefects saying that this year, students who break rules are not advised to go into the forest for detention. Filch is not pleased with that. But there must be something happening there that is too dangerous."

Ariane looked at Dumbledore with worries. What was happening in the forest? Was it the person who had been pursuing Ariane for years?

"And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Ravenclaws got up and yawned, heading towards a prefect who was waving at the Ravenclaws.

"Ravenclaws, follow me! I am Prefect Raymond Nestor, first years, follow me!"

The first years gathered in front of Raymond, and looked at him sleepily.

"The Ravenclaw Tower is on the west side of Hogwarts, and the dormitory is on the fifth floor. You can see the lake, the Forbidden Forest, the Quidditch pitch and the Herbology gardens. No other house in the school has such stunning views."

As they walked up to the dormitory using the spiral staircase, Ariane could notice the height of the tower, it seemed to be the highest tower of Hogwarts.

"Unlike other houses, who all have concealed entrances to their common rooms, we don't need one. The door to our common room lies at the top of a tall, winding staircase. It has no handle, but an enchanted bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle. When you rap on the door, this knocker will ask you a question, and if you can answer it correctly, you are allowed in. You may be scared by having to answer the eagle's questions, but don't worry. Ravenclaws learn quickly, and you'll soon enjoy the challenges of the door sets. It's not unusual to find twenty people standing outside the common room door, all trying to work out the answer to the day's question together. This is a great way to meet fellow Ravenclaws from other years, and to learn from them – although it is a bit annoying if you've forgotten your Quidditch robes and need to get in and out in a hurry. In fact, I'd advise you to triple-check your bag for everything you need before leaving Ravenclaw Tower."

There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross.

"Peeves," Raymond whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist."

A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.

There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross.

"Go now, Peeves, or the Baron will be alerted."

"Oh, the ickle Larsen baby!"

Ariane did not know why he knew her name, but one thing she was sure that Peeves was not the type of spirit that was friendly.

"Go, Peeves, the Baron will hear that, I mean it!"

Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.

"You may want to watch out for Peeves," said Raymond. "No one beside the Bloody Baron can control him."

"Who's the Bloody Baron?" asked Ariane.

"The ghost of Slytherin, the one with silvery blood on his clothes," replied Hugo.

When they reached the entrance and Raymond rapped at the door, the eagle spoke in a melodious voice,

"How to make someone feel itchy in distance?"

The first years were frowning, wondering what the answer could be. But Raymond answered it quickly,

"Rictusempra, which is known as the Tickling Charm."

"Nicely phrased," said the eagle.

The door swung open and Ariane found herself in an airy room. It is a wide, circular room with a midnight blue carpet, arched windows hung with blue and bronze silks, and a domed ceiling painted with stars. The room is furnished with tables, chairs, and bookcases; and by the door leading up to the dormitories stands a tall statue of Rowena Ravenclaw made of white marble.

Raymond directed the girls to the right and the boys to the left.

"Alright, female first years, head to the right. Boys follow me."

Ariane and the others found their bed: five four-posters hung with deep blue, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.

Ariane chose a bed by the window, the Hogwarts ground was ever so pleasing, and stars at the dark sky was bright and twinkling like diamonds. Perhaps Ariane was worn out in the journey, she slept at once.

Perhaps Ariane was too tired, she had a very strange dream. She saw herself in a meadow late at night, and a blaze at fire struck at the grass shrouded Ariane. Panicked, she yelled for her parents, only finding a shadow telling her that she belonged to Slytherin rather than Ravenclaw. She kept yelling for help until the thick smoke covered her. She woke up and found herself panting with fear, and her heart was pumping vigorously.

She rolled over and fell asleep again, and when she woke next day, the memory of the dream was less horrible and she chose to ignore it.


	5. Chapter 5

Ariane settled down at the Great Hall at half past seven. Whispers followed her whenever she went, people stared at her and a crowd would soon gather behind her.

"I'm so much like an animal being goggled at in the zoo," moaned Ariane.

"Not really," said Claudia. "Just pretend they don't exist."

"But I can't."

"Anne's got the point," said Hugo while helping himself a glass of orange juice. "You cannot escape from reality. Finally, you will have to accept it."

"That sounds so philosophical," said Claudia as she poured milk onto her bowl of cornflakes.

Midnight meowed and jumped onto the table, eating kippers that were still steaming.

"Anne, I don't think you should bring your cat everywhere," said Hugo. "You know that."

"She doesn't like to stay in the room, she would wreck the room if I make her stay," said Ariane while petting Midnight.

"Hi, everyone," said Joanne and Leo as they sat down beside Claudia.

"Oh, what's our first lesson?" asked Claudia. "I hope it will be Charms."

"History of Magic," replied Joanne with a frown on her face. "And it's double lesson, for three hours."

"Hubert says Binns' lesson is very boring, not even Raveclaws can stand it," said Hugo with worries.

"It isn't that horrible, is it?" asked Claudia.

No one answered.

A sudden hoot soared through the hall.

"Mails!" exclaimed Claudia.

More than a hundred owls streamed into the Great Hall, finding their owners and dropping letters and packages.

A familiar hoot rang and Ariane looked up. A white owl dropped a package onto her hands and landed onto her shoulder. Snowy hooted softly and nibbled her ear.

"Wow! Is this your owl?" asked Claudia.

"My family owl," replied Ariane. "Snowy."

"Wish I have an owl," said Claudia. "Mom and Dad never buy one."

"Maybe we can buy one next year," suggested Ariane as she gave Snowy bits of toast and bacon.

Ariane took out her quill and parchment to reply her parents' letter.

Snowy hooted with satisfaction. Ariane gave her a bit of rolls before she headed back home.

History of Magic was everything like Hugo said. The most exciting thing was when Professor Binns went into the classroom through the blackboard. Claudia occasionally pointed out his mistakes of mixing up names and dates, much to Binns' embarrassment. Ariane could see the Hufflepuffs in front of her row sleeping soundly, with only a few students overcame the drowsiness by writing or chatting. It was queer that almost every Ravenclaw was wide awake, jotting down notes and listen attentively, and Ariane was one of them.

"Uric the Oddball is certainly different from Emeric the Evil," said Joanne, who was flipping across the pages quickly. "Uric the Oddball is the one who kept thinking he was a ghost and wearing jellyfish hats."

"What are we going to have for afternoon?" asked Claudia.

"Herbology," replied Ariane. "With the Slytherins. Then we have a free period."

"Not the Slytherins again," moaned Claudia. "We have Potions class with them already."

"How'd you know?" asked Barney, who was in front of Ariane's row. "We don't have Potions until Wednesday."

"A boy named Xavier Lawrence in Gryffindor told me just this morning he would be having Potions in the afternoon with Hufflepuffs."

"I heard that the Potions professor favours Slytherins more than to others. He will knock off points from you if you make any mistakes," said Hugo darkly. "My brother says he knocked off Ravenclaw sixty points for the first week because an idiot in Slytherin melted his cauldron and potions splattered onto other's robes."

"But how come Professor Snape knocked our house's points?" asked Joanne.

"The excuse was my brother's friend did not warn him that the idiot should stir twice clockwise, not thrice counterwise," snapped Hugo.

"But we Ravenclaws should be able to handle Potions, right?"

"Let's hope Daniel gets to keep his cauldron after Wednesday," said Leo at the back bleakly and pointed at Daniel, who was nodding like a simpleton.

After Ariane had taken some mashed potatoes and stew, she headed towards classroom 102. She thought Herbology was to examine plants like gardening lessons in muggle world, but she had never expected that there were spells needed to be used to plants.

The Herbology teacher, Professor Sprout taught them to use the Fire-Making Spell for later use for Spiky Bush. Durak accidentally cast the spell on the robes of Glupp, and Maure looked at them with disgust.

"_Aguamenti_!" yelled Professor Sprout.

Professor Sprout's wand shot out a jet of water onto Glupp's robes, Glupp stared at his robes dully with a confused face.

"Be careful, Mr. Drake!" exclaimed Professor Sprout. "If you do not practise hard, I am sure you will set the greenhouses on fire later on!"

At the end of the lesson, only Ariane and Joanne could make no difference to Professor Sprout's spell. She awarded ten points to Ravenclaw and gave them a big smile.

"How many inches do we have to write on Uric the Oddball essay?" asked Claudia, who was piling up reference books on the table in the common room.

"3 feet, I think," replied Ariane. "But I think we should add a few inches more."

"I still have 2 inches to go."

"I got one inch more than basic requirement," said Barney proudly.

"I got eight inches more than you," said Hugo. "In order to get an A, my brother says you need to write at least six inches more than required."

"You have to write all facts in the essay. Did you write about Radolphus Pittiman? He wrote a biography of Uric the Oddball?"

"Oh, I almost forget! Now I can add in a few more inches, probably four inches more…"

At half past four, Ariane went to classroom 99 at the south tower for charms class. Professor Flitwick, a tiny wizard who stood on a stack of books to reach his desk, took roll call and toppled and squeaked with excitement as he reached Ariane's name.

"Remember, class, swish and flick, and say your incantation precisely and clearly, don't hurry or stutter or else you will find yourselves in different troubles."

Dinner was held at six sharp, Ariane brought alone her things down to the Great Hall and sat down beside Brian.

"Gosh, I'm really sleepy," said Brian while eating his pork chops. "I need some sleep."

"Go back to your bed after you finished your homework and dinner, but be sure to wake up at eleven to prepare for the class," answered Ariane while helping herself for some lamb chops.

"Why?"

"Astronomy class."

"I almost forget about the whole thing."

Owl posts arrived again, and a tiny owl landed onto the table like a plane and food was off the table instantly, with a few feathers hovering just a few inches above the table surface.

"Daniel, I think you should take your owl to a flying lesson," said Claudia.

"Oh no, Filler," moaned Daniel. "That's another disastrous landing again."

"Watch out, Dan," a voice came from the Slytherin's table. "Like owl, like wizard."

Laughter burst out from the Slytherin's table and everyone was jeering at Daniel.

"Stop it, Fjodor!" exclaimed Leo. "Leave him alone."

The laughter shrank a little, but hints of snigger still echoed.

Filler the owl lay unconscious on the table, his legs daggling in the air and Daniel took the package that was in its claws. It jerked up and flapped its wings to balance its body, hooting happily and flew away.

Daniel unwrapped the package and took out a crystal clear ball that was filled with wisps of silvery smoke.

"Look, it's a Remembrall," exclaimed Leo.

"What's that?" Ariane asked Claudia.

"It's a magical ball to help you remember things, if the smoke turns red, it means you've forgotten something," explained Claudia.

The smoke in the crystal ball immediately turns red like blood.

"The problem is, I can't remember what I've forgotten," said Daniel with a worried face.

"Hey Anne, check it out," whispered Hugo while holding the Daily Prophet. "There's a unicorn killed in our school's forest."

"Maybe it's just an accident," said Claudia.

"No, because the blood of the unicorn was all sucked out, leaving teeth marks on the abdomen," said Hugo mysteriously. "That's the part where the ministry is puzzled, I mean no one would want to kill such pure creatures. It is like a crime when you hurt one, not to mention to kill it."

Ariane's face darkened.

"Dumbledore will take care of that," said Claudia. "He's the wisest wizard in this world."

"I think Claudia's right," said Ariane. "There's nothing for us to worry."


	6. Chapter 6

Tranfiguration lesson was more than Ariane expected. In their first lesson, Professor McGonagall made them copy lots of complicated notes and had to change a match into a needle. By the end of the lesson, Hugo managed to turn the match into a slightly curved needle, Professor McGonagall gave him a smile and awarded Ravenclaw five points, and the Gryffindors sighed.

The Defence Against the Dark Arts turned out to be a bit of joke. Professor Storotte was always holding always holding an iguana on his hand and explained the use of iguanas in repelling vampires. Strangely, he had a humped back and no one, not even the twins knew what had exactly happened. People rumoured that before he came to Hogwarts, he fell from a cliff because he saw a vampire, but Ariane was not sure about that. When he read Ariane's name, he jerked for a while and stuttered her name with huge difficulty.

"Ig..Ig…guan…guan…guanas…are…are…e…e…effective against…the the the….vamp—pires."

At the end of lessons, he only managed to teach one page of the textbook due to his constant stammering. But what Ariane was looking forward to was Potions.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

Like Flitwick, Snape paused as he read Ariane's name during the roll call. The difference was Flitwick was excited while Snape looked at her as though it was pain. Everyone switched glances between Ariane and Snape, hoping to know the reason behind the abnormal silence. He soon cleared his throat softly and continued the roll call. His cold black eyes were a bit watery as though there were repentance and tribulation stirring up in him.

"You are here to learn the indigenous science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had y caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic but I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Ariane glanced at Claudia, who put a puzzled expression on her face. Snape put them in pairs and Ariane had to team up with Maure to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils, while Claudia teamed up with Hugo. Daniel, who was sniffling for the whole lesson, was unfortunately teamed with Glupp.

Ariane looked at the instructions on the board carefully.

_First lesson_

_1. Add 6 snake fangs to the mortar._

_2. Crush into a fine powder using the pestle._

_3. Add 4 measures of the crushed fangs to your cauldron._

_4. Heat the mixture to 250 for 10 seconds._

_5. Wave your wand._

_6. Leave to brew and return after free period._

_Second lesson_

_1. Add 4 horned slugs to your cauldron._

_2. Take the cauldron off the fire before adding the next ingredient._

_3. Add 2 porcupine quills to your cauldron._

_4._ _Stir 5 times, clockwise._

_5. Wave your wand to complete the potion._

"I'll crush the snake fangs," said Maure confidently.

Ariane nodded as she added the snake fangs into the mortar. Maure immediately crushed the fangs as if his arm had installed a motor. Then she sprinkled hour measures of powder into the cauldron.

Snape, who had been criticizing everyone for the whole lesson, praised Maure as a perfect student studying Potions. Ariane received a small praise from Snape for doing the steps quick and well but she did not receive the five points that Maure was awarded.

Snape made Daniel and Glupp stay behind for the free period because Daniel had forgotten to crush the snake fangs. Snape ordered them to redo the potion after cleaning up the dungeon.

When the free period was over, Ariane went back and found Daniel adding horn slugs. When Glupp was adding porcupine quills into the cauldron, Ariane yelled,

"No, Sam, you should take the cauldron off—"

There was an explosion and Glupp's cauldron melted into a twisted blob, their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in Glupp's shoes.

Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools, while Glupp's plump face and stout arms, who was drenched in the potion hen the cauldron collapsed, stared at his arms obtusely for a while before he moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand, glaring at Daniel with no reason. "I suppose you didn't tell him not to add the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Daniel whimpered while glancing at Glupp's swollen face.

"Take him up to the hospital wing," he spat at Daniel and Daniel probed Glupp out of the dungeon, whimpering. Then he rounded on Ariane, but then quickly switched to looking at Hugo and Claudia. "You—Hugo—why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? If it is not Ariane warning him, I bet you would be also the one who have boils on your face. One point off from Ravenclaw."

Hugo tried to argue but Joanne pulled him back.

"Be quiet, I don't want to lose points anymore."

As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Ariane was thinking over Snape's word. It should be her who received the blaming, but why did he scold Hugo instead, who was standing further than Ariane to Daniel?

"My brother is right," groaned Hugo. "Snape favours Slytherin so much that he creates different kinds of excuses to knock points off from Ravenclaw. He's going to pick on me for the whole year."

"He wouldn't," said Claudia. "As long as you choose a table far from Slytherins."

"Wish I can be you, Anne, he didn't pick on you," said Hugo when they reached the dormitory entrance.

"That's because Maure is a Slytherin, and it's just a coincidence," explained Ariane. "Next time you can just team with him to avoid being yelled at."

The melodious voice rang as they rapped on the knocker.

"Why is Mars shining bright tonight?"

"Why?" Hugo asked the girls.

Claudia was again in deep thoughts, and Ariane immersed herself into the philosophical state of mind, then she smiled.

"Because conflict is coming at sight?"

"Nice and consice."

The door swung open and they went to the common room to get all their books down to the study hall.

"Make sure you bring everything, Madam Pince is going to pinch us for running in and out of the hall."

The study hall was as quiet as usual, only the scribbling of the quills made by the first years and second years was heard. Ariane finished her work quickly, and began to recite the Forgetfulness Potions.

"We still haven't done this potion," whispered Hugo.

"I don't want points off from Ravenclaw."

When dinner time came, everyone hurried down to the Great Hall and enjoyed the feast. The owl post came again and Ariane read the Daily Prophet casually, but then found something peculiar at the magizoology column.

"Look," said Ariane. "There's another unicorn killed in our forest."

"Strange, who would want to kill a unicorn?" asked Claudia.

"Even Mr. Ollivander who is always making wands would not kill the unicorn for its hair," said Hugo. "And the column says blood is sucked out too."

"Yuck," said Claudia, looked disgusted. "That's so barbaric. Wonder what Dumbledore's going to do about it."

"I think there's something with the blood, the blood must have contain something, something that is beneficial to one."

None of them said a thing, so they decided to ignore the news and continued their dinner. By the time when they finished the astronomy lesson, the trio had forgotten about the queer murder of unicorns happening deep in the Forbidden Forest.


	7. Chapter 7

Ariane had just received the news that there would be a Quidditch match of Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Having flying lessons with the Hufflepuffs for a week, she knew flying on a broomstick was not an easy job, though she still managed to fly quickly without much wobble or falling. She was not sure if she should support Gryffindor or Slytherin, but Claudia and Hugo were sure about their stand.

"Of course Gryffindor, Slytherins are nasty," said Hugo.

"That's overstating!" exclaimed Claudia. "At least Yulia and Louis are friendly."

"I think Maure is quite friendly too," said Ariane quietly.

"Maure?" yelled Hugo. "He's a rac—a bloodist! He likes you because you are a pure-blood."

"He's got the point," chipped in Joanne, who was passing by and sat beside them. "Maure and his gang tease me because I am a muggle-born."

"I don't see blood counts in Maure's eyes, just look at Dan, he's got a howler for every week and the Slytherins snigger at him."

Everyone looked at Daniel, who had received another howler from his mother again.

"DANIEL CRAWFORD, THIS IS THE LAST TIME I BUY YOU A CAULDRON FOR THIS MONTH, IF YOU KEEP ON BLOWING UP PROFESSOR SNAPE'S DUNGEON, I WILL PICK YOU UP FROM SCHOOL AND LET YOU STUDY LIKE A MUGGLE! DO YOU KNOW YOUR EXPENSE ON CAULDRON IS THRICE THAN YOUR EXPENSE ON YOUR PARCHMENT AND INK? I AM REALLY FED UP WITH YOU!"

The howler reduced into ashes and fell onto the table, while Daniel looked at his new cauldron with embarrassment and dullness, the Slytherins laughed at him and cheered.

"Careful, Crawford, or else you will be a muggle!" said Yates, a pale and dark haired boy.

"He's not a muggle, he's a squib!" jeered Seneca, a boy with curly brown hair with piercing reddish amber eyes.

"Stop it, Giulio!" yelled Hugo. "Daniel is not a squib, he is magical like us all."

"Be careful, Huggins," sniggered Maure. "You are just one step from muggle."

Hugo's face turned red and glared at the Slytherins. Ariane patted his back and told him to calm down.

"Let's hope the Gryffindor beat them," said Hugo darkly.

"You'd better hope we in the house cup," said Claudia.

"I don't think we can," said Ariane.

"Why?"

"For the first month, Snape took twenty-one points off from us."

The trio moaned and ate their rolls hopelessly as Professor McGonagall walked out off the hall through the aisle between Ravenclaw and Slytherin's table.

"I wonder what tonight feast would look like," said Claudia dreamily while having Charms lesson. "Friday is always so dreamy."

"I think we will have pumpkin juice like usual, but I will look at the decoration definitely," said Joanne at the front, who had just performed the Levitation Charm. Her feather hovered for a while and then fell back onto the table.

"Wing-dar-dum-lovely-o-tsar!" said Daniel, who was aiming his wand at the feather.

"Dan, it's _Wingardium Leviosa—_"

The feather exploded and reduced to ashes. Everyone glanced at Paloma, who was sitting beside Daniel. Her face was covered with ashes and she was trying to control her sobs. Instantly, there was a snigger at the back of the classroom and all the Ravenclaws glared at the chuckling Gryffindor. When the lesson ended, Paloma headed to the bathroom and did not arrive at the hall.

"Do you think she's alright?" asked Joanne.

"She'll be fine, we might be able to bring some pastries to the common room and let her eat," replied Leo. "Don't worry, she'll be perfectly okay next day."

Ariane, though persuading herself that everything would be fine, had a peculiar feeling that things weren't going her way.

"Pass me the pumpkin juice, Anne," said Hugo.

Ariane stared at Hugo blankly, then slowly gave him the jug.

"Anne, you don't look good," said Claudia.

"I think we should go and find Paloma."

"Okay, we'll bring something for her to eat, though Snape would confiscate the food when he finds out."

The door swung open suddenly and Professor Storette rushing in and yelled. His face was filled with terror and anxiety. When he reached the teacher's table, he crashed into the table and fell onto the ground. Shaking, he staggered up clumsily and was out of breath, "Occamy—Occamy in the dungeon—in the dungeon—thought you ought—ought to know."

He passed out and his face clashed onto the floor, lying still.

The hall was silent for a while, then uproar arose from the tables, everyone was taking their things and headed towards the door.

"SILENCE!"

The hall became silent again and everyone looked at Dumbledore.

"Everyone will please, not panic. Now, Prefects will lead their houses back to the dormitories. Teachers will follow me to the dungeons. "

"What's an occamy?" asked Ariane.

"Some kind of aggressive creature that is over at least twelve feet tall, may be taller than a troll, occasionally eat monkeys," replied Claudia.

"Let's hope it doesn't take us as monkeys," said Hugo darkly.

"Paloma!"

"Who?"

"Paloma, she's in the bathroom!" exclaimed Ariane. "We've got to tell her."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.

"Hide!"

They hid behind a large stone griffin, peering around it, however, they saw not anyone but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.

"He's heading to forest if he's going to that direction."

"Why would he want to go to the forest?"

"How would I know?" said Hugo. "Possibly he's the one who kill the unicorns and sets out this occamy to distract us."

Suddenly, a plumed, two-legged serpentine-bodied creature with bird's head appeared in front of them.

"So…this is…" began Claudia, gulping and sweating hard.

Immediately, the beast attacked and slashed its tail onto the trio. Paloma walked out from the bathroom and screamed as loudly as she can.

"Do something!"

"What?" asked Ariane, who was going through the spells that she had learnt, but none of them seemed to be useful to defend themselves from an occamy.

She did not have time to think of any other plan. Then a small word pop out from her head and she somehow knew this incantation would help.

"_Confringo!_"

The blast from her wand hit the creature and flames surrounded it. The creature screeched and thrashed its tail with agony. The children stood at the corner, watching the flames died out and the creature fell onto the ground, worn out and passed out. The room trembled as it collapsed onto the floor.

It was Paloma who spoke first.

"Is it dead?"

"Pass out," replied Hugo.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the four of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Storette bringing up the rear. Storette took one look at the occamy, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart, smiling nervously to ease the atmosphere.

Snape bent over the occamy and frowned. Ariane noticed that silvery stains were on the bottom of Snape's and Storette's robes. Professor McGonagall was looking at the children. Ariane had never seen her look so angry.

"Give me your wand, Ms. Larsen," said Snape.

Ariane gave him her wand with fear and hid behind her friends once Snape got her wand.

"_Prior Incantato!_"

A red smoke emerged from the wand's tip. The smoke became a spherical shape and blasted out suddenly, and within a pop, it disappeared. Snape looked at Ariane with suspicion, and also Professor McGonagall.

"Explain yourself, Ms. Larsen," said Professor McGonagall.

"I—I—"

"Do you know what spell you have just cast?" asked Snape.

Ariane shook her head, fearing that the curse she cast was something unforgivable.

"Blasting curse," reported Snape. "Know as _Confringo _for its incantation. Not taught to students until Year Five."

"Ms. Larsen, where did you—"said Professor McGonagall. "Where did you learn the spell?"

"I don't know," replied Ariane. "I—I just use it."

"Perhaps it would be better if we use veritaserum on them," said Snape. "We can get a better view on it."

Claudia gulped. She knew the veritaserum was something up to no good. They all looked at Professor McGonagall, hoping to hear something fortunate.

"As for you four I just hope you realize how fortunate you are. Not many students could take on a full grown occamy and live to tell the tale. 5 points...will be awarded to each of you. For sheer dumb luck."

Ariane could not believe their luck.

"If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Ravenclaw tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses. Professor Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick will be informed of this. You may go."

Ariane nodded. They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the chamber, quite apart from anything else.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Paloma, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks," and hurried off to get plates.


	8. Chapter 8

As November stepped in Hogwarts, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy grey and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost.

The Quidditch season had begun. Ariane was looking forward to the competition, after the first match, it would be Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff. Maure had been boasting around about his house and the brooms that he would buy next year.

"You know, father has always said I should be in the team, with a nimbus model broom, not comets like the Hufflepuffs—"

"How come Maure is so annoying?" snapped Claudia with disgust.

"He's just boasting around," said Ariane. "Let him do what he wants, as long as he doesn't bother us much."

"His constant talking is bothering me."

"We'll avoid seeing him then."

"Okay, okay."

Having Paloma as a friend was nice. Usually, she acted cool and indifferent, after she had been saved by Ariane, she was much friendlier and offered to help out in Transfigurations.

Before the Quidditch game started, Ariane got herself a nice seat at the front, bringing an Omnioculars in order to see the match clearly.

John Bengel, the Gryffindor commentator, was in his elements.

"The first of the year has finally begun! With the beautiful Gryffindor chaser Jacqueline Jones holding the Quaffle. She is always the most attractive—"

"BENGEL!"

"Sorry, Professor."

Professor McGonagall glared at him for a while and sighed.

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Olivia Collins, a good find of Darius Miller's, last year only a reserve - back to Jones and - no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Cyrus Gibson gains the Quaffle and off he goes - Gibson flying like an eagle up there - he's going to sc- no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Miller and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle - that's Chaser Shirley Adams of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Gibson, off up the field and - OUCH - that is really nasty, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger - Quaffle taken by the Slytherins - that's Martin Turner speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger - sent his way by Edward Moore - nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Jones back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes - she's really got good flying skills- dodges a speeding Bludger - the goal posts are ahead - come on, now, Jacqueline - Keeper Simpson dives - yes, they miss it - GRYFFINDORS SCORE! Ten points for that! Good for you Slytherin, you miss it!"

"BENGEL!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall. "Mind your speech!"

Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins.

"I wonder where the snitch is," said Claudia dreamily.

"There," whispered Ariane. "Over there, at the Hufflepuff's drapes…see?"

"Where…where...oh, I see it. You've a sharp eye."

"Wish the Seekers see it."

"Now they see it," said Hugo while pointing at the two Seekers.

"The snitch has been spotted! Go, Smith, win it for Gryffindor!"

The Gryffindors and Slytherins yelled for the Seekers.

WHAM! A roar of rage echoed from the Gryffindors – Cyrus Gibson had blocked Smith by sending a Blundger to him, nearly sending him off the broom.

"Foul!" screamed the Gryffindors.

Madam Hooch spoke angrily to Gibson and then ordered a free shot at the goal posts for Gryffindor. But in all the confusion, of course, the Golden Snitch had disappeared from sight again.

Down in the stands, Leo Shaw was yelling, "Send him off, ref! Red card!"

"What are you talking about, Leo?" said Brian Barney.

"Red card!" said Brian furiously. "In soccer you get shown the red card and you're out of the game!"

"But this isn't soccer, Leo," Barney reminded him.

"Doesn't matter, he's going to kill Smith if the Blundger hits him."

John Bengel found it hard not to take sides.

"Nasty playing! It is all cheating, you filthy scoundrel—"

"Bengel!" growled Professor McGonagall. "I'm warning you—"

"All right, all right. Gibson nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Adams, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."

"Slytherin in possession - Gibson with the Quaffle – passes Collins - passes Adams - hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose - only joking, Professor - Slytherins score - A no..."

The Slytherins were cheering, with booing and hissing of the Gryffindors trying to cover the cheers.

"The snitch!" said Ariane. "There, at the poles!"

"Where?"

"See? At the tallest one, hovering."

"Oh, I see it!"

Smith seemed to have seen it as he dived towards the poles and caught the snitch. The Slytherin Seeker was pursing his lips and grumbling, cursing Smith for taking the snitch.

"I got the snitch!" said Smith.

"Gryffindor Seeker Jack Smith got the snitch! Gryffindor wins Slytherin with one hundred eighty points over twenty points!"

Ariane smiled and glanced at the Slytherin Tower, where Maure and the others were in great disappointment, moaning and cursing the Gryffindors. The Gryffindors were screaming and yelling with delight. Professor Flitwick clapped loudly and congratulated Professor McGonagall, who was smiling brightly. Snape, on the other hand, was pursing his lips sourly, bitterly congratulated Professor McGonagall.

"Until next time, with Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff! Who will win?" yelled John. "We'll see you next time! I need to write an interview with the Gryffindor Seeker, and also, of course the beautiful Chaser Jacqueline Jones—"

"BENGEL!"

"Sorry, Professor, next time Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw! Who will get the snitch? The Hufflepuff Seeker Mary Benson or Kelly Starling of the Ravenclaw team? Can Johnny Dickson, the Hufflepuff new Keeper beat off the Quaffle? The star of that day will be Teresa Taylor, the Ravenclaw Chaser who never fails to send the Quaffle into the rings… "

Ariane did not listen for the whole speech, she was heading back towards the common room for researching on her homework and prepare for exams. Deep in her heart, she believed that something would happen next month and it would definitely bother her studies.


	9. Chapter 9

It was mid December, and snow had covered Hogwarts. Everyone was talking about their activities during holidays. Ariane had sent letters to her parents, and her parents had asked her to come back for Christmas. She agreed and asked if her friends want to come over during holidays. Claudia and Hugo agreed, thinking that it would be wonderful to visit her family. Joanne and Barney promised to come only when they had their parents' permission.

Ariane was thinking where she should start revision. She was not confident at Transfiguration, so she had asked Hugo to help out before going back home. In return, she taught her charms and potions. Claudia had not started her revision, claiming that she would perform better if she studied one week before the exams. Ariane could not deny her intelligence, she was witty and had a quick mind to find out the answers.

After she had finished dinner at the Great Hall, , Ariane went back to the Ravenclaw Tower for packing her stuff for Astronomy lesson.

When she reached the Ravenclaw dormitory entrance, she saw Daniel Crawford hopping all the way from the stairs, with students passing by him laughing and pointing at his funny bunny-hops.

"Is that Leg-Locker Curse?" asked Claudia.

"Must be the opus of the Slytherins," replied Ariane. "Poor Daniel."

"Hi, someone, help me—" said Daniel, who was breathless after hopping all the way from the ground to the top floor.

"Dan, did you hop all the way from the hall?" asked Ariane.

"I don't want to, but I unfortunately bump into some Slytherins when I head out of the hall, and they used Jelly-Leg Curse and Leg-Locker Curse on me. I don't know if they use any other curses and add any other stuff in my food because I am feeling a bit funny."

"I do the counter-curse," offered Brian, who walked by.

"Oh no, thank you. Last time you set fire on my hair. It took me ten hours to grow all my hair back."

"Is that an insinuation?"

"But last time you set me on fire during Herbology. I don't want to meet people with a bald head tomorrow, or even worse."

Claudia and Ariane sniggered with embarrassment, while Brian walked away with pink tinges on his face.

"Sometimes, you should not speak that frankly, Dan," said Ariane.

"I tried, but that's the truth."

"Oh, Dan…"

"Never mind," whispered Ariane.

"First-year's syllabus does not include this curse," said Claudia. "I may as well do a bit light reading at the library but we can't now. There's too little time."

"Yeah, so what are we going to do?"

"Tell Flitwick?"

"No! He'll tell my mom again, and then you will see a howler appeared on Ravenclaw's desk tomorrow morning."

"Oh, if that's the case…" began Claudia.

"We'll get you to Madam Pomfrey—" suggested Ariane.

"That's a better idea," said Daniel.

They probed Daniel to the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey decided to do a detailed body check to ensure Daniel was not poisoned or injured, and thus, he had to skip the Astronomy lesson and would come back to the dormitory after twelve.

After the Astronomy lesson, Ariane and her friends did not go back to the dormitory, instead, they headed to the Hospital Wing.

Daniel, who had the curses off him, was leaning against the wall.

"Dan, why don't you—"

"I can't figure out the password, I've been thinking it for the whole day!"

"Sometimes I really doubt if you are a Ravenclaw," said Claudia with a sigh.

"I like to study but I am just not good at it," said Daniel. "All my family has been in Ravenclaw. I am just not good at Potions, I am getting better in Charms."

They went towards the Ravenclaw Tower, only finding Maure waiting for them at the stairs, smirking as if he had a nasty plot on them.

"What's up, Crawford, having your legs shaking again?" jeered Maure. "Do we have to probe you up to the entrance? I bet we need to use Levitation Charm on you, due to your weight."

"Cut it out!" snapped Hugo.

"Shut up, Higgins," snapped Maure. "I didn't ask you to speak."

"You what?"

"You'll be in great trouble when I tell the professor about it," said Maure, smirking nastily. "You are sure to be in trouble for that, probably a hundred points from you all each."

"No, Lewis, please don't. We'll be all in trouble, even for Slytherin," said Ariane.

Maure did not seem to have noticed her until she had spoken. He blushed and looked much embarrassed by his words as she spoke.

"Come on, let's go, before anyone sees us," said Ariane.

"Did you hear something?" asked Claudia.

"What?" asked Hugo.

"Oh, no…Is…"

"Is that…"

"I think so…"

They all turned around and spotted a cat meowing in that dark, and Ariane was sure it was not Midnight. She stared at the dust-coloured Persian cat at the corner, hissing and meowing with alert. Its eyes were amber, shining like lamp.

"Oh no, Mrs. Norris," whispered Claudia.

"Hurry, run!"

They were all stopped by a nasty-looking rheumatic man. He had hunch shoulders and back, and his cheeks were sunken, and looked even more horrible with his brown shaggy clothes

"What are you all doing here late at night?"

The nasty voice cracked and an evil snigger followed. They all looked at Filch the caretaker, who was holding a lamp and his face was crushed like sandpaper.

"Oh dear dear, you're in trouble."

Ariane did not know what to do, she dazed with horror as Filch cackled like a crow.

"Oh yes, you are all in trouble for out of bed," said Filch and he chuckled softly, showed his evil grin and Ariane could see the gold teeth in his mouth gleaming with malice.


	10. Chapter 10

Filch grabbed Maure's robes collar and the children were pushed into Professor McGonagall's Office.

"Professor, students out of bed after curfew."

"Mr. Crawford, haven't Madam Pomfrey told you to go straight back to the dormitory?" asked Professor McGonagall, who was examining the students.

Daniel muttered something in a barely audible volume.

"Speak up, Mr. Crawford, please."

"I can't figure out the answer to the door."

Ariane thought she heard a snigger from Maure.

"What about you four? Why didn't you go back to bed after lesson?"

"We—We—"

"Yes, Miss Claudia?"

Claudia found it hard to think for an appropriate reason to go out late at night.

"I'm clearly disappointed of your behaviour, Professor Snape and Professor Flitwick will be alerted. As to ensure this won't happen again, twenty points will be deducted."

"Twenty?" exclaimed Hugo.

"Yes, Mr. Hugo, each."

Hugo wanted to argue but Claudia pulled him back.

"For your detention, Mr. Filch will take you to Hagrid's hut, and the detention will be taken place at the Forbidden Forest."

"But, Professor," said Maure again. "But I thought Professor Dumbledore had said we weren't advised to have detention in there."

"As to ensure this won't happen again, it is appropriate for you to have detention in the forest. And Mr. Crawford, I will escort you to the entrance."

After watching Daniel got out of sight with Professor McGonagall, the children pursed their lips as Filch escorted them to the grounds.

"Twenty each?" said Hugo. "That's so unfair."

"Use up me and Joanne's fifty each for getting the tests all correct in Herbology, Transfigurations and Charms. Wish I can get more points in Potions, Snape just only give me ten points," said Ariane.

"Ten? I think it's already good enough that he didn't deduct points from our mistakes in the tests," said Claudia.

"Not to mention Dan's test, he nearly failed," added Claudia.

"Everyone would want to curse us for losing eighty points for that. I don't think anyone has lost eighty in a go."

"Let's hope Ravenclaw win that Quidditch."

"Nah, the Gryffindors will beat us down."

"Let's hope we can pass our mid-terms so Flitwick can give us more points."

"Oh, good old days when I can slap students with whips and chains if they talk too much," gritted Filch. "Too bad those corporal punishments are banned."

The children gulped and did not talk until they met Hagrid.

Hagrid was waiting for them at the hut, with Fang, a black boar hound at his heels. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder. Their detention work was to find out the injured unicorns. Ariane was a bit unsure, what if she met the killer and the killer would kill them all too? Thinking that made her shudder much. After practising sending sparks as signals, they headed towards the forest.

"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what's left of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

"We need ter split teams," said Hagrid.

Ariane was just about to be with Claudia and Hugo when Maure interrupted.

"I will go with Anne and Fang," said Maure, who was thinking that a boar hound with big long razor teeth could make a strong team.

"Okay, just wanna let yer know, he's a coward," said Hagrid.

Fang whined, and hid behind Maure. Maure looked frightened as he was told that Fang could not protect him from danger.

"But there're occamys and trolls, and even werewolves!" exclaimed Maure.

"Yep, I hear that there're even lethifolds in the forests," answered Hagrid.

"Wait till my father knows about this."

They went into the forest and parted by the mist.

"I don't have a good feeling," said Ariane.

"I'll protect you then," replied Maure, who was acting to be brave.

"You don't have to, I get a mysterious shield like the shield charm when bad things happened."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"I know it will work."

A snap at the twigs frightened them, and they looked at a shining rock at the ground not far. As they walked closer, the 'rock' was revealed to be a unicorn, with silvery blood gushing out from its abdomen.

"Yuck," gasped Maure as he stepped onto a pool of silvery liquid. "Unicorn blood."

Their voice seemed to have alerted a dark shadow. It was a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's abdomen, and began to drink its blood.

Maure let out a terrible scream and bolted - so did Fang. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Ariane - unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Ariane - she couldn't move for fear.

Then a pain like she'd never felt before pierced her head; it was as though her brain were on fire. Half blinded, she staggered backward. The hooded figure glided towards her and made a menacing growl, trying to embezzle her. She heard hooves behind him, galloping, and something jumped clean over Ariane, charging at the figure.

The pain in Ariane's head was so bad he fell to her knees helplessly. It took a minute or two to pass. When she looked up, the figure had gone. A majestic and respectful creature came to her, and she knew it was a centaur. To the waist, a man, with white-blond hair, but below that was a horse's gleaming palomino body with a long, blond tail, was standing over her.

"Are you all right?" said the centaur, pulling Ariane to his feet.

"Yes—thank you—what was that?"

The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Ariane, his eyes lingering on her eyes and her hair.

"You are Rowena Ravenclaw's impeccable descendent," he said. "It is not safe for you to linger here in the forest, especially for you. Mars is shining bright these days, unusually."

Ariane did not know what to say.

"Can you ride? It will quicker and safer."

"My name is Firenze," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Ariane could clamber onto his back.

There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Another centaur came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.

"Firenze!" The centaur thundered. "What are you doing? You have a human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"

"Do you realize who this is?" said Firenze. "This is the Ravenclaw's daughter. The quicker she leaves this forest, the better."

"Alright, if that's the Ravenclaw's daughter." growled that centaur. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"

Ariane didn't have a clue what was going on.

"Why's he so angry?" he asked. "What was that thing you saved me from, anyway?"

Firenze slowed to a walk, warned Ariane to keep her head bowed in case of low-hanging branches, but did not answer Ariane's question. They made their way through the trees in silence for so long that Ariane thought Firenze didn't want to talk to her anymore. They were passing through a particularly dense patch of trees, however, when Firenze suddenly stopped.

"Ariane Larsen, do you know what unicorn blood is used -for?"

"No," said Ariane, startled by the odd question. "We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions."

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," said Firenze. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

Ariane stared at the back of Firenze's head, which was dappled silver in the moonlight.

"But who'd be that desperate?" he wondered aloud. "If you're going to be cursed forever, deaths better, isn't it?"

Ariane nodded as if she understood what he was saying.

"You mean that thing is—"

"We centaurs are not supposed to expose the secret of the earth, but I must warn you to be careful."

"Ariane! Ariane, are you all right?"

Claudia was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind her.

"I'm fine," said Ariane, barely knowing what he was saying. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing back there."

"This is where I leave you," Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now."

Ariane slid off his back.

"Good luck, Ariane Larsen," said Firenze. "The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times."

He turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest, leaving Ariane shivering behind him.

Hugo had fallen asleep in the dark common room, waiting for them to return. He shouted something about Quidditch fouls when Ariane roughly shook him awake. In a matter of seconds, though, he was wide-eyed as Ariane began to tell him and Claudia what had happened in the forest.

Ariane couldn't sit down. She paced up and down in front of the fire. She was still shaking.

"Snape must be working Sere—"

"Don't say that name!"

"Okay, You-Know-Who…and he's waiting in the forest... Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have done so... The centaurs were furious... he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that he's coming back... They think Firenze should have let him kill me... I suppose that's written in the stars as well."

"Hey, remember who's the only wizard You-Know-Who ever afraid of?" asked Claudia.

There was a pause.

"Dumbledore, as long as he's here in Hogwarts, you are safe, and there's nothing You-Know-Who can do around."


	11. Chapter 11

While riding in Hogwarts Express, Ariane watched vast snowy land as the train passed through the snow. Midnight was snoozing on Ariane's lap, enjoying herself in indoor warmth.

"Anne, would you mind if you wait for us at the platform? We can ask our parents about the visit," said Brian.

"No, of course," replied Ariane. "Mama will be there too."

"I bet Mama would want to celebrate Christmas with you all," said Claudia. "And I hope the house is big enough for fifteen people."

"I'm not sure, but I think there are some enlargement spells my parents can perform, but I really don't know if that's possible. Holding fifteen people in the living room is difficult."

"Seventeen, actually," said Hugo. "Joanne has two sisters. The eldest is Year 5 and the other one is Year 3."

"Is your brother coming?" asked Claudia. "Or he's staying in Egypt?"

"Dunno, I've sent the owl, I think he can come, he mentions that he is coming from Egypt after he has cleared the tomb."

"I want to hear his journey, I bet it's like Journey to the Centre of the Earth."

"What?" asked Claudia.

"A muggle book," replied Ariane. "It's interesting, I have it in my room, if you want to borrow it. I think you will love it a lot."

"I really want how muggles think," said Claudia. "Sometimes I really can't figure out why muggles think in such a strange way. They even think ghosts are horrible and will make them crazy, and they even claim the giant kelpie in Loch Ness is a dinnersore—"

"Dinosaur," Ariane corrected her.

"Whatever, I just cannot see why they can't think like us."

"Because they don't have magic in their blood and of course they won't believe."

The train hooted and decelerated. Ariane quickly got her trunk and headed out of the train compartment. She looked sideways and found her parents smiling proudly at her not far. She dragged her trunk and Midnight rested herself onto her shoulder, meowing gleefully.

"How's my little treasure doing?" asked Mr. Larsen, offering to help carrying his daughter's trunk.

"Great, I never dream of being in such a school," replied Ariane.

"Come on, let's go," said Mr. Larsen.

"Hold on, I need to wait for Joanne and Brian."

She looked into the crowd, and found her friends walking towards her with their parents. Joanne's sisters had similar appearance as her little sister, having the same ginger blonde hair and brown eyes.

"Mama, this is Joanne Nassou and her sisters. This is Brian Barney," introduced Ariane.

"Joanne, is she the Ariane Larsen mentioned in your letter?" asked Mrs. Nassou.

"Yes, Mommy," replied Joanne sweetly.

"It's a great pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Larsen," said Mr. Barney. "Mr. Edwin Barney, Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"Level 5, isn't it?" said Mr. Larsen. "We must have a chat—"

"How about on Christmas Eve?" piped Joanne. "We can celebrate together, and we'll have fun and lots of talk."

"Why not, is that alright for you, Mr. and Mrs. Nassou?" said Mrs. Larsen and gave Mrs. Nassou a piece of paper. "This is our address."

"Nairn? I guess we can take the plane to Inverness Airport and go to Nairn then"

"What's an airport?" asked Brian.

"I'll explain everything to you with Joanne on that day," said Ariane. "We'll tell you everything."

"Okay," said Brian.

After bidding farewell, Ariane and her parents apparated back to their home. Midnight went straight to Ariane's bed and curled herself at on the pillow, snoozing soundly.

* * *

Buying presents for wizards and witches was difficult for Ariane, she did not know if she should buy muggle products or wizarding items. She wanted to give her friends something special, but she could think of nothing that she was sure her friends did not have or had the knowledge to use them. Finally, she decided to buy things in Diagon Alley.

She bought a bunch of Chocolate frogs for Claudia and Hugo. Thinking that Brian was raised in the wizarding world, she bought him _Treasure Island_, which was commonly sold in Scottish bookshop. For Joanne, she got her a wizard chess set. She bought Joanne's sisters some snacks as she did not know their favourites.

At the night of Christmas Eve, everyone arrived and opened their presents while enjoying themselves with delicacies and beverages. Ariane helped herself eggnog while her father was drinking deep with the parents.

"I brought some pumpkin pastries and chocoballs," said Brian and the children enjoyed the snacks.

"Oh, here're the presents…" said Ariane and delivered them. "This is for Claudia…Hugo…Joanne…and Brian."

"Thanks, Anne."

They exchanged gifts and unwrapped them immediately. It was curious that Claudia and Joanne got her magic books. _The Tales Beedle the Bard_ was from Claudia and _Encyclopaedia of Mystic Creatures_ from Joanne. Joanne's sister bought some snacks for her as a sign of friendliness.

"All wizarding children read this book," said Claudia. "It's interesting."

Hugo bought her a _Notable Magical Names of Our Time_ at the Flourish and Blott's in which he pointed out that Ariane was mentioned in a few pages. Brian gave her a Christmas cracker, and he told her the present was completely random, turned out the gift as a homework planner.

"Have you started revising?" asked Joanne. "I've been thinking how to make my pin perfect."

"Try to make it beautiful and have decorations on it," suggested Hugo. "Brother says that Professor McGonagall will add marks if you make it pretty."

"Perhaps I should add a cat decoration on it," said Joanne. "She seems to like cats a lot."

"I might as well revise Potions first," said Hugo darkly. "I don't think Snape would give me a pass even if I answered all correct."

"I think you should think about this after you see Dan got a zero in Potions," said Brian.

"He's good at Charms, he can make a pass for sure for the overall."

The families celebrated for the whole night, having a lavish feast and chatted a lot. The party ended at midnight, when Joanne started yawning and fell asleep in her parent's arms.

After everyone had left, Mrs. Larsen waved her wand and the mess vanished. The dishes were automatically washed at the sink and everything was back to normal.


	12. Chapter 12

Ariane could not believe that exams had passed so quickly. She had been immersing herself in the heaps of books and until she had remembered every word on each page. History of Magic was not as hard as she thought, she handed in five feet of parchment to Professor Binns. She reckoned that Hugo had handed in six and a half inches by judging at the bunch of parchment in his arms as he went out to the teacher's table.

Potions was far from expected, Snape tested them Draught of Living Death, somehow there was a voice deep in her heart telling her to crush the Sopophorous bean with the silver dagger is better than catching the jumping bean and cut it with huge effort. She stirred one clockwise after the seven anti-clockwise. Snape was frowning at her, wondering what made her do the steps, and Ariane thought Snape had to know the steps too, because he was muttering words as he monitored her brewing. It was fortunate for Daniel able to brew one, Snape was almost giving him a fail.

Charms was her favourite, she performed all the charms correctly and she received extra marks for performing the engorgement charm on the fire. Professor Flitwick was so delighted that he invited her to his office for a small dance performance of little cupcakes.

She admitted that she was not as successful as Claudia and Hugo in Transfigurations, Professor McGonagall gave them one hundred and three marks because they had made the silver pin pretty and quaint. Ariane could only manage to get ninety-five marks because her pin was a bit bronze in colour and somehow a bit curved.

Storette was absent during their exam period, Ariane reckoned he was afraid of some vampires or hags coming out from nowhere and scared him. The twins said they threw a snowball at his back, and somehow a nasty cold voice screeched with agony. Ariane did not believe in that, thinking of Storette's constant stuttering and stammering made unable to believe in them.

"Hi," said Daniel, who was half-crawling on the common room floor with his legs shaking. "Just want to know, who will be our opponent?"

"Dan, did you got cursed again?" asked Claudia, who could not believe her eyes.

"Is this Jelly-Legs Curse?" asked Hugo.

"Yeah, Maure again, outside the library," moaned Daniel, who sat down on the bench with huge difficulty. "It'll wear off soon."

"Can't you just do a few spells?" asked Joanne. "To defend yourself?"

"Oh no, I will set myself on fire."

Ariane could barely hold her giggles.

"So, can someone tell which house we're facing next Quidditch match?"

"Gryffindor," replies Ariane. "And it's not going to hold until mid-May, we're having Slytherin versus Hufflepuff for this time."

"Oh no, I almost forget!"

The Ravenclaws sighed at Daniel's forgetfulness.

"Maybe we should get you some Forgetfulness Potions in Snape's cupboard," commented Brian. "Then you might as well have a better result in the final exam."

"Don't be silly, the quills we use for exams are bewitched with Anti-Cheating Spells," said Claudia. "You will be in great trouble if you try to get away with this."

"I'll go and do my Charms assignment," said Daniel, whose legs were not as wobbly as jus now, headed to the stairs.

"Daniel, that's the girl's—"

Before Ariane could complete her sentence, the stairs transformed into a slide and sent Daniel back to the common room, landing with his back with agony.

"My back," moaned Daniel. "Sometimes I can't tell which way is which…"

His voice faded as he went to the boy's bedroom stairs.

"I doubt if Dan can distinguish between the two stairs before he graduates," said Hugo, who helped himself a glass of water.

Ariane did not want to move around just to get the jug. She was thinking if it would be possible if the jug could glide through the table and let her pour down the refreshing cool water. Suddenly, the jug slid across the table and stopped in front of Ariane.

"Wow," gasped Claudia. "How did you do that?"

"I just keep asking the jug to come forward," answered Ariane, who held the jug with a hint of hesitation.

"That could be wandless and non-verbal magic," explained Hugo. "My brother can do that when he was studying in Year 7. He says it is quite hard to master for those who have not take the O.W.L.S. That is really amazing."

"Really, but that sounds weird," said Ariane and she took a sip of water.

"Doing spells like this will need extra concentration and skills, have you learnt any magic before?"

"No," replied Ariane, who felt like a weirdo.

"That's strange," said Hugo. "But never mind, it's cool."

"I wish I can do it too," said Claudia and she continued writing her essays.

Ariane did not feel amused at all, all she was thinking was the dark figure in the Forbidden Forest. Though it did not reveal itself, Firenze's warning was haunting her. What could the creature be? There seemed to be no other options than the cold wizard that everyone feared., not everyone to be exact, at least Dumbledore never feared of him. She wished she could tell this to Dumbledore, though she was not sure if anyone was going to trust her. Who would have thought a little Year 1 could meet such kind of beast? That seemed to be an unconvincing evidence to show the wizard whom had made people fear had aroused from death. Every time when she recalled the shrill sharp scream, she shuddered and her muscles twitched, tensed up for a while. Her mind would be swollen and could not think properly, even her heart would keep on pumping vigorously for the whole day, even when she lay on the bed. Sometimes, Midnight could sense her discomfort and nuzzled her to calm her down, but still, she would stay awake for the whole night and the shrill cold cry would linger until dawn. She had thought of taking a drop of Draught of Living Death when in Potions class, but thinking about the consequences, she shook away the idea and slept with her mind swirling like whirlpool.


	13. Chapter 13

Though Ariane was not particularly interested in Quidditch like Leo, she thought it would be rude if she was not present at the spectator stand when everyone, no matter which house, was cheering loudly and watched with amusement.

Bengel was already in his elements even before all the spectators had settled down.

"Hufflepuff and Slytherin match! Will Hufflepuff's seeker get the snitch before the Slytherin's beaters whack him off? Today's spotlight in on Hufflepuff's seeker, Mary Benson. Just get into the team two years ago, almost got the cup. So welcome our teams into the pitch!"

The crowd cheered and the two teams marched into the centre of the pitch with Madam Hooch. They mounted onto their brooms and hovered in mid-air for warm-ups, then they flew back to Madam Hooch, who was ready on her brooms. After she had made enough reminders, she signalled Professor Dumbledore with a nod. Bengel's eyes sparkled and he yelled with his tremendous voice.

"Let the match begin!"

Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle into mid-air and the chasersswooped to the ball and ascended into the clear blue sky with extreme speed.

"Hufflepuff in possession—nice flying, Scott, with his new Nimbus Two Thousand—oh, Slytherin's Chaser Martin Turner snatched it! And he speeds off to the pole, and—bravo, Johnny Dickson blocked the Quaffle! Now Hufflepuff's in possession again—"

Ariane occasionally glanced and she reckoned she spotted a glinting fluttering golden ball, and she gasped with surprise, pointing at Madam Hooch's broom,

"The snitch!"

At once, the two seekers soared towards Madam Hooch, aiming at the snitch which was hovering around Madam Hooch's broom tail. Then, the crowds gasped with horror, neither of the two seekers got the snitch, and Mary Benson halted in mid-air and her brooms flew around, trying to fling her away. Everyone stopped their cheering and terrified shrieking filled the pitch, while the Slytherin seeker Driscoll, dazed with confusion, and the snitch disappeared.

"What's happening?"

"Somebody help them!"

"It's Snape," whispered Claudia.

"Who?" asked Ariane.

"Snape, he is muttering something," said Claudia, who was concentrating her sight in her binoculars. "It's really Snape. We need to stop them."

"I know it is him," snapped Hugo. "He wants Slytherin to win, that's his motive. I will give him a piece of my mind."

"Hold on, Hugo," said Ariane. "I'll go with you."

The two headed to the professors' stand, and Ariane thought the air had become thin and frozen. The peculiar feeling was getting bigger, Ariane did not want to go further, but Hugo's determination drove the idea away.

Just when Ariane reached the professor's stand, Hugo backed a little, locking his lips with anxiety.

"I may get expelled if I set fire on his robes," said Hugo.

"I will go then, Snape never says a bad word of me," said Ariane.

"That's because you're a pure-blood, whereas I am a muggle-born."

"That doesn't make any difference."

"At least it does in his eye."

"Alright, I will, you stay here and alert me if anything happens."

Hugo nodded and Ariane headed towards where Snape was sitting. She brushed off a pile of dust off her robes and she found Snape's black robes. She took out her wand, and was ready to set flames on it. But a horrible thought struck her, what if she got expelled and no one could protect her safety when You-Know-Who came and tried to kill her? Who would protect her when she returned to her muggle school? No muggles, even for policemen, could protect her from dark magic.

Her hand shook with fear, unable to aim properly. She withdrew her hand, fearing that her shaking would alert the professors. She hated herself for being so timid but there seemed to have no other alternatives. She swished her wand, aiming at the black robes. A small ember for a while but was distinguished soon by the owner of the robes. Screams broke out from the pitch once she tried to raise her wand again.

She peered out from the holes and saw Mary Benson up on her broom again, zooming towards the blue sky and caught the snitch.

"Hufflepuff wins!"

Cheers broke out and Ariane quickly went down to meet Hugo.

"Yes, Hufflepuff did it!" exclaimed Hugo. "Your flame worked!"

"But I—"

"Come on, let's go back."

"But—"

Hugo pulled her back to the Ravenclaw's stand. Everyone was cheering, even for Joanne. Claudia was beaming at Ariane, showing a thumb-up. Ariane was confused, she did not cause much mayhem enough to get Snape distracted, how could her ember did anything? Though she kept telling everyone that she did nothing, Hugo and Claudia ignored her explanation and immersed herself into the fun, leaving her perplexed.

"But I didn't do anything—"

"Don't be a scaredy cat, we know you did it," said Claudia, who was jumping up and down.

"But I didn't—"

As she walked back to the common room, she saw Snape pursing his lips and muttering something. Strangely, as Ariane examined his robes, she could not find any burnt spots. She frowned, remembering that the ember had made a small but visible hole. But thinking that Snape could use spells to weave it back, she pursed her lips and continued walking. She saw Storette, who was snivelling like a rat. As walked past Ariane, she could hear a faint haunting cold voice chuckling, and she shivered and looked at Storette's back. Then she saw a small burnt hole on his robes. She gasped and a chill went through her spine, somehow she had a feeling that she should not have recognized the wrong robes. There was a sinister feeling that agitating Storette would not be a good idea, and Storette was just a wolf with the coat of a sheep.

Thinking over Storette for the whole night, she could not go to sleep. She kept on thinking there was something behind Storette's stuttering appearance. There had to be something behind him, but she did not have the faintest idea. She even thought that You-Know-Who was actually Storette in disguise, this idea made her shudder until the next day.


	14. Chapter 14

Ariane had almost skipped her lunch at noon, she did not have any appetite to eat, but Claudia made her sit down and had some pastries.

"You can't go to Potions class with nothing in your stomach," said Claudia. "You're going to starve yourself before you can brew the Wiggenweld Potion."

"The Wig-what?" asked Hugo, who was stuffing pork chops in his mouth.

"Wiggenweld Potion," snapped Claudia.

"But I don't feel like eating," said Ariane.

"Are you fearing that Snape is going to punish you?" asked Hugo when he had swallowed his food. "He doesn't know who sets his robes on fire, and even he knows it is you, he won't punish you, because you're a pure-blood."

"Blood purity does not count," said Ariane. "Being teamed with Maure for every potion brewing does not mean Snape likes me like what he does to Maure."

"Just give yourself some confidence," said Hugo. "You're only scaring yourselves, there's nothing you should worry. The one who should be worrying is me."

Snape was curling his lips when he watched everyone brewing the potions. Maure was acting like a perfect student, he added the ingredients with confidence and smiled at Snape whenever he had done one step from the potion book. Ariane was not paying any attentions, she was thinking over Firenze's words. Why would Snape kill unicorns? Unless—

"Time's up, put down your spoon and I will come around to check your—inferior liquid."

Daniel was sniffling, his potion had turned grey, thick and mud-like, with bursting bubbles on the surface. Glupp had his robes burnt again and holes were everywhere on his robes. He waved his wand and tried to do the repairing work, but only led to much more holes.

"Idiot boy!" snapped Snape. "How many times I have told you not to add flobberworm mucus before adding the lionfish spines? And also, you only put three spines."

Daniel whimpered, knowing that he had made a terrible mistake.

"And there's five—one point taken from Ravenclaw."

All the Ravenclaws stared at Daniel and sighed.

"And I would like to remind Mr. Higgins that he has the responsibility to remind his classmates about the steps of brewing any potions."

Hugo tried to argue but the Ravenclaws pulled him back.

"Mr. Higgins and Ms. Walker will have to stay behind for cleaning up," announced Snape. "And to ensure that Mr. Higgins will not forget his duty, I assign you the essay of brewing the Forgetfulness Potion, due tomorrow."

"What?" gasped Hugo, completely shocked to hear that he had extra work for no reason.

At the end of the class, Snape stood in front of Hugo, staring at him. The others hurried off in order to avoid being involved.

"I have the duty to remind Mr. Huggins that stealing potion ingredients will result in terrible consequences," said Snape, who was gritting out words through his teeth. "Elder roots, snake venoms and nettle, think you can get some more tonight and combine them with the unicorn blood in Forbidden Forest?"

Hugo shook his head, denying the false accusation.

"No sir," replied Hugo. "I didn't do anything."

"We'll see what is in your brain."

This gave everyone a shudder and they quickly scooted off once they have finished cleaning.

"Elder roots, snake venoms, nettle and unicorn blood? I don't even know what potion it is!" exclaimed Hugo.

"Why don't we find it out in the library?" asked Claudia. "Perhaps we can get something useful."

"I don't think it is a good idea," said Ariane with worries on her face.

"Why not?"

"We have been drifting on the harbour of safety and I don't think it will benefit us if we continued to get involved."

"Come on, don't be a coward!" said Hugo.

"Okay," said Ariane. "I am a coward, so don't blame me for not helping you."

She stormed away and went straight to the common room for revision without any dinner. Joanne was kind enough to bring her rolls and pastries in order not to let her starve for the whole night.

Hugo tried to find an appropriate time to apologize, but Ariane told herself not to forgive his rudeness. She knew she should forgive and forget, but it was too hard for her.

"I'm sorry, Anne," said Hugo, who was on the brink of crying. "I don't mean to call you—"

"You've said I am a coward, you don't have to apologize to a coward."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay, you can go, leave me be."

Hugo but his lips and went straight to the boys' room. Claudia walked passed Ariane and looked at her with hope, then she walked back to the room and did not talk to Ariane. Brian, who had been observing his friends, decided to talk into Ariane.

"You know, you should forgive and forget, like what Dumbledore always says," said Brian.

"He calls me a coward, and that's what I really am."

"He doesn't really mean that. You're a bit overreacting."

"Alright, I know that."

"Once my father says your mother was a proud girl, someone from Slytherin teased her a little and she never forgave that boy."

"I don't see it is relevant to my case."

"Look, always give a chance to others. You would want to make friends rather than enemies."

Thinking over Brian's words, Ariane decided to forgive Hugo.


	15. Chapter 15

Ariane had been staying in the library for days, trying to figure out the potion that Snape had mentioned that day. So far, there seemed to be no trace in Hogwarts library. The potion book did not even mention much about unicorn blood, only stating that unicorn tail hair and horn could be used in potions. Claudia even fell asleep while searching for the information.

"I don't think there're any other uses of unicorn besides making wands and brewing Antidote to Common Poisons," said Ariane. "I've read through the potions section. There's nothing to do with unicorn blood."

"If only we can Professor Flitwick," said Claudia.

"If you want to receive detentions, I would encourage you to do so."

"Of course I know."

"What about the Restricted Section?" whispered Hugo.

"I'm not going there," said Ariane quickly. "We'll get caught by Madam Pince, she'll kill us."

"No one tells you to go in there during daytime with so many people watching us."

"You don't mean night time, do you?"

"If not, when are we going to get the answer? By that time, all the unicorns will have been killed, and there's nothing we can do about that"

"I just don't get it, why are you so nervous about that?" asked Claudia. "Dumbledore will solve it. And extinction of unicorns won't affect us."

"How can you say that?" exclaimed Hugo. "Haven't you read that Daily Prophet? If unicorns die out, where will we get a perfectly matching wand if ours are broken or lost? What if we are poisoned and there are no bezoars around? We'll be dead."

"You're over worrying. There are other antidotes if we don't use unicorns' parts."

"That's what's written in the Daily Prophet," said Hugo. "I will find a way to sneak in."

"But you can't keep library books for long, there's the thief charm. You'll be punished."

"I got this," said Hugo, and he took out a small bottle from his robes. "Invisibility Potions, able to hide yourself for a couple of hours."

Ariane and Claudia stared at Hugo with disbelief.

"Tonight, we'll do it, okay?" asked Hugo.

Claudia nodded immediately, but Ariane hesitated. Should she go too? It seemed to be risky.

"Please, Anne, please nod," said Claudia.

Ariane gave a hesitant nod, though she reckoned it was unworthy to take the risk.

* * *

When everyone was sleeping, the three took a couple drops of potion and went outside.

"This should be able to hold on for three hours," said Hugo. "I think."

They headed towards the library. They saw Peeves smashing glasses and plates in the corridor, nearing hitting them. When Claudia was hit and let out a little shriek, Peeves turned around and looked confused.

"Who's there?" asked Peeves. "Filthy Filchy, come out if you're here. I will smash your cat and put it into the Slytherin's dungeon."

They quickly walked away, and found themselves in the library. Ariane could not see her friends, and she could hear them talking.

"Come on, if anyone's coming, let out a meow like Mrs. Norris," said Hugo. "And we'll head back to the eagle, and lean against the wall. Don't fret if anyone invisible clutches your arms, because it may be one of us."

"Are you sure?" asked Claudia.

"Meowing is definitely better than any other options."

They entered the dark library and they lighted their wands. The library was pitch-black and very eerie. The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Step ping carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library, they held up their wands to read the didn't tell him much. Their peeling, faded gold letters spelled words in languages Ariane couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood. Ariane shuddered badly when she saw the books. Maybes he was imagining it, maybe not, but she thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be. Ariane found a book that mentioned unicorn blood and began to read slowly with huge concentration.

_The blood of a unicorn can be used to keep a person who is near death alive, but the person will have a cursed life from the moment the blood touches the person's lips. The unicorn blood is used in making the Elixir of mortality, which is banned from selling. Those who keep the potion are requested to alert the Ministry._

Ariane gasped and gleefully made a copy of the page. When she put back the book onto the shelf, she heard a loud screech from the corner split the silence, which made her panicked.

"Who's there, show yourselves!" snapped Filch. "You can't hide from me in here."

Filch's sour face was beside a lamp. He was examining everywhere, looking for out-of-bed students. Mrs. Norris, who was beside him, seemed to have sensed out students. She walked towards Ariane and meowed with malice. Ariane could feel blood draining out from her face when Mrs. Norris nuzzled her feet, giving her a chill down to the spine.

"Sniff them out, sweet, I am sure there's someone around here," said Filch.

Ariane heard faint footsteps walking out of the library door. She followed the footsteps and went back to the entrance of the common room. Her robes became more visible, only in a transparent state.

"Glad that we are out," whispered Hugo. "Who's the one picking that book?"

"Sorry," said Claudia. "I didn't have time to realize that."

"Find anything?"

"I did, but let's go back to the common room."

Once they settled down in the common room, Ariane took out the paper and read it. She seemed to have figured out who was the mastermind behind the series of unicorns' death.


	16. Chapter 16

Ariane did not realize how she managed to get through exams while half expecting that any dark wizards or witches would burst in and kill her at any moment.

Her Transfigurations did not improve much despite having so many practices with Claudia and Hugo. She made one snuffbox with a kitty decoration, but this only earned her ninety-seven marks because her snuffbox was not as glamorous as her friends'. She saw Claudia's one was pink in colour and had Ravenclaw's symbol on it. Hugo's one was golden in colour and had gemstones on it.

Ariane managed to make the pineapples dance across the table. A boy named William Pavel from Gryffindor made the pineapple exploded and reduced to ashes before they could hover. Snape made them do the Wiggenweld Potion. Daniel would have messed up everything if Claudia had not muttered the instructions while risking being caught.

The last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented selfstirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Claudia couldn't help cheering with the rest.

"Luckily I remember it's Gaspard Shingleton on page 279, I didn't go through the first half of the book because I need to revise for Astronomy," said Claudia, who was beaming brightly.

Ariane did not answer, her head had become heavy these days.

"You should go to Hospital Wing—" said Hugo.

"No—It's a warning, I think Snape's going to do something tonight."

"Do that horrible potion?"

"Probably."

"Let's go and find Dumbledore."

When they burst into Professor Flitwick's office, Flitwick nearly fall from his stool.

"What's the news, my little Ravenclaws?"

"Is Professor Dumbledore in his office?"

"He's just left, ten minutes ago because the Ministry sent him an urgent owl, went to London straight."

Ariane gulped, now what?

"So why are you finding Professor Dumbledore in such hurry?" asked Flitwick.

"It's about the unicorns, and Sn—someone is doing it again tonight," babbled Claudia quickly. "We need to tell Professor about this."

"There's nothing you should worry, my young ones," said Flitwick. "Professor Dumbledore will come back tomorrow, and I will tell him about this. Now, want some cupcakes?"

"No, thanks."

The three went out of Flitwick's office with huge disappointment.

"It's tonight," said Hugo, once he was sure Professor Flitwick was out of earshot. "Snape's going to do it tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."

"But what can we–"

Claudia gasped. Hugo and Ariane wheeled round.

Snape was standing there.

"Good afternoon," he said smoothly.

They stared at him.

"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile.

"We were -" Hugo began, without any idea what he was going to say.

"You want to be more careful," said Snape. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Ravenclaw really can't afford to lose any more points, can it, Miss Larsen?"

Ariane bit her lips and nodded. Hugo flushed with fury and embarrassment. They turned to go outside, but Snape called them back.

"Be warned, Higgins - any more night time wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."

He strode off in the direction of the staffroom.

Out on the stone steps, Hugo turned to the others.

"Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape - wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Ariane, you'd better do that."

"Why me?"

"It's obvious," said Claudia. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." She tried to mimic Ariane's voice, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question twenty wrong...'"

"Are you sure?" asked Ariane. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"Anyway, you're a pure-blood, so you're not going to get caught!" exclaimed Hugo.

"Oh, shut up," said Ariane, but she agreed to go and watch out for Snape.

"And we'd better stay outside the third-floor corridor," Hugo told Claudia. "Come on."

But that part of the plan didn't work. No sooner had she reached the staffroom, Snape questioned her and she fled once Snape went to get Flitwick.

Hugo and Claudia also got busted because they had met Professor McGonagall.

"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Hugo said. "I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the forest first."

"You're mad!" exclaimed Ariane. "You're going to get expelled."

"Does it really matter that much?" said Hugo. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, You-Know-Who's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? He won't leave you and your families alone if Ravenclaw's wins the house cup. There might possibly have no Ravenclaw house at all, only Slytherin and ever Slytherin. If I get caught before I can get to the forest, well, I'll have to go to the muggle world and wait for You-Know-Who to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm a muggle-born and You-Know-Who's ambition is to clear out all the muggle-borns, get it?

After a while, Claudia nodded.

"Perhaps you're right."

"I still got a few drops of Invisibility Potion, enough for us to get to the forest."

"Will it be enough for three of us?" asked Ariane.

"You—you coming too?"

"It's me who has defeated him once, moreover I have the secret protection shield when I face danger. I can provide you the shield while you face Snape."

"But we might all get expelled!"

"Don't worry, Flitwick tells me that we all get one hundred and eleven marks for History of Magic and Charms, there's no way they are going to kick us out."

After dinner the three of them sat nervously apart in the common room. Nobody bothered them; none of the Ravenclaws had anything to say to Hugo any more, after all. This was the first night he hadn't been upset by it. Hugo was skimming through all his notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to try to break. Ariane and Claudia didn't talk much. Both of them were thinking about what they were about to do.

Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed.

"Better go out and take the drops," said Hugo.

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Daniel appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Binky the puffskein, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Dan, nothing," said Hugo, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.

Daniel stared at their guilty faces.

"You're going out again," he said.

"No, no, no," said Ariane. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Dan?"

Hugo looked at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn't afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep.

"You can't go out," said Daniel, "you'll be caught again. Ravenclaw will be in even more trouble."

"You don't understand," said Hugo, "this is important."

But Daniel was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate.

"You're going to get us into trouble, I won't let you go," said Daniel, hurrying to the entrance. "I'll put charms on you."

"Dan, "Claudia exploded, "get away from that hole and don't be an idiot -"

"Don't you call me an idiot!" said Daniel. I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"

"Yes, but not to us," said Claudia in exasperation. "Daniel, you don't know what you're doing."

He took a step forward and Daniel dropped his puffskein, who leapt out of sight. Hugo turned to Ariane.

"Do something," he said desperately.

Ariane stepped forward.

"Dan," she said, "I'm really, really sorry about this."

She raised her wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Daniel.

Daniel's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board.

Ariane ran to turn him over. Daniel's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

"What've you done to him?" Hugo whispered.

"It's the full Body-Bind," said Ariane miserably. "Oh, Dan, I'm so sorry."

"We had to, Dan, no time to explain," said Hugo.

"You'll understand later, Dan," said Claudia as they stepped over him and pulled on the invisibility cloak.

But leaving Daniel lying motionless on the floor didn't feel like a very good omen. In their nervous state, every statue's shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them. At the foot of the first set of stairs, they spotted Mrs. Norris skulking near the top.

"Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Claudia whispered in Hugo's ear, but Hugo said no. As they climbed carefully around her, Mrs. Norris turned her lamplike eyes on them, but didn't do anything.

They didn't meet anyone else until they reached the hall. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.

"Who's there?" he said suddenly as they climbed toward him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?"

He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at them.

"Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."

Hugo had a sudden idea.

"Peeves," he said, in a hoarse whisper, "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."

Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs.

"So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, Sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake - I didn't see you - of course I didn't, you're invisible - forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."

"I have business here, Peeves," croaked Hugo. "Stay away from this place tonight."

"I will, sir, I most certainly will," said Peeves, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you."

And he scooted off

Claudia giggled softly once Peeves was away. They reached the Forbidden Forest soon, and the potion had been wearing off quicker, revealing their faces.

"Ready?" asked Hugo.

Ariane and Claudia nodded.

The Forbidden Forest was shrouded with mist, more ominous and sinister than normal. They decided to split up in order to find Snape sooner. They had agreed that once they found something, they would be sending red sparks up to the sky.

Ariane wanted to leave as she stepped over the silvery blue blood of unicorns. She did not have a good feeling. But thinking that her friends were still in the forest, she bit her lips and continued.

Then, screams rang through the forest, and Ariane panicked.

"Hugo! Claudia!"

No one answered, and Ariane could see a lifeless unicorn at the grass. It was badly wounded, and Ariane knew she could not save it.

There was already a dark shadow there - but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Seredemort.


	17. Chapter 17

It was Storette.

"You, you—" began Ariane.

Storette smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Larsen."

"But I thought - Snape -"

"Severus?" Storette laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Storette?"

Ariane couldn't take it in. This couldn't be true, it couldn't.

"But Snape tried to kill that Hufflepuff seeker!"

"No, no, no. I tried to distract everyone. You accidentally set fire to me at that Quidditch match. You broke my eye contact with that innocent girl. Another few seconds and I'd have got that girl off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a countercurse, trying to save her. I could have succeeded in causing mayhem. Others, like you, of course think that Snape is trying to make Slytherin wins. What an idiot, making himself so unpopular. But anyway, you can't escape now."

"You let the Occamy in, didn't you?"

"Ravenclaws, always so brainy. Yes, I did."

"But Snape—"

"He is one of your mother's secret lovers, and so he always tries to protect you, don't you know? But your mother doesn't forgive him for calling her something bad."

Ariane did not know what to say.

"Sometimes," he said, "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions - he is a great wizard and I am weak -"

"You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Ariane gasped.

"He is with me wherever I go," said Storette quietly. "I met him when I travelled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Seredemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it... Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Storette shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me... decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me..."

Ariane bit her lips, frowning badly.

"See the cauldron behind me?" asked Storette.

Ariane saw grey thick liquid brewing in a black cauldron. The smell was unbearable and nauseous, making her want to throw up.

"Know what's this potion is?" said Storette. "The ultimate Elixir of Mortality. Once Lord Seredemort drinks it, he will rise and become the greatest sorcerer on earth."

"Let me speak to her, face-to-face," said a voice.

The voice was cold and cruel, reminding Ariane of a person, a person that she had encountered before.

"Master, you're not strong enough!"

"Storette, let me speak to her."

Ariane tried to backed away and flee, but her legs were stiff and hard. Petrified, she dazed with horror while Storette took off his robes. Then he took out a knife and cut a bit of flesh from his finger. He dropped the flesh into the cauldron. The grey liquid exhaled haze and the tormenting heat made Ariane dizzy.

A face slowly appeared on Storette's back. It had piercing red eyes, and was pale like chalk powder.

"Ariane Larsen…we meet again….nine years already…" the voice hissed.

Ariane wanted to flee, but her legs were not moving.

"See what I've become…weak…feeble…sharing my life with another body…you've seen me in the Forbidden Forest, with my faithful servant drinking unicorn blood for me…now…just when he jumps into the potion, I will rise like before…"

Ariane was determined to destroy the potion.

"Foolish girl…standing up against Lord Seredemort is not worthy…now why not join me…you're a pureblood, and we will together create a perfect world."

"Never will I join you," said Ariane, with her voice shaking. "Never."

"Silly girl, you belong to a pure wizarding world, with no muggle influence…now come…and you'll be rewarded…"

"NEVER!"

"You leave me no choice…GRAB HER!"

Storette flew towards her and clutched her neck tightly. At once, a needle-sharp pain pierced through her mind, her head felt as if it would be split into two. She struggled and scratched Storette's wrist with her fingernails. To her surprise, he let go and his hands was starting to reduce into ashes. He yelled in agony and watched his hand vanishing. Then Ariane glanced at the cauldron and dived towards it, trying to destroy to potion and wreck the evil plot.

"GRAB HER!"

"Master, my hand, my hand—"

"GRAB HER!"

When Ariane got to the cauldron, Storette pulled her aside and pinned her onto the ground. Ariane wriggled and out of instinct, she grabbed Storette's face—

"AAARRRGH!"

Storette rolled off and his face was starting to vanish, once Ariane stood up, she pulled out her wand and pointed at the cauldron, using a spell that came across her mind at once.

"FLIPENDO!"

A blue ray shot directly to the cauldron and the cauldron was knocked over and broke. The potion splattered onto the ground and started to dry up.

"NO! KILL HER!"

Storette tried to strangle her with his remaining arm, knowing that she could end this battle, Ariane pressed her palm onto his bare body before Storette. Storette screeched and staggered backwards, his whole body began to vanish and reduced to ashes.

Ariane got up and panted. She watched the heap of ashes on the ground, wondering what to do next. Then, dark smog came out from the heap and dived into her body. She tried to dodge it, but then a blue aura shield emerged out from her body, the smog bounced off and the shield exploded, separating the two. The smog disappeared at instant into thin air and Ariane fell onto the damp grass, lying lifelessly and fell into darkness.

* * *

Tomorrow will be the last chapter, then I will upload THE HUNGER GAMES fanfic. So, see you tomorrow.


	18. Chapter 18

There was something hovering in the darkness, Ariane tried to stretch out her arms, but they were too heavy.

Come on, get it.

She blinked and a vague image swarm into view above her. It was quiet and calming. She blinked again, and the smiling face of Professor Dumbledore became sharp and clear. Ariane stared at him, not knowing what to say.

"Good afternoon, Miss Larsen."

She was shocked and tried to greet him, but strangely, she did not know what to say, there was something stuck in her throat and she could not say anything.

"How do you feel?"

Ariane nodded and got up, with the pillow at her back, supporting her worn out body.

"Good."

Then Ariane began to speak.

"Sir, Storette…Storette..."

"You've been behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Storette did not succeed."

"What about…Claudia…Hugo?"

"Your friends are fine, if they had not tried to send the owl late at night, I would not have come."

"You…went to London."

"Calm down, or Madam Pomfrey will have to throw me out."

She looked around, she was in the Hospital Wing, with a heap of snacks on the table next to her. She took a deep breath and looked at Dumbledore with confusion.

"How long have I been here?"

"About three days, Miss Walker and Mr. Higgins would be most delighted to see you awake."

"Sir, we tried to find you that day, but you were gone."

"Yes, I have feared that I am too late, but fortunately, I come in time. I know Storette is behind the whole thing, you have been very brave."

"But sir, I…I tried to flee…I was scared."

"Anyone with a heart would be scared. It is completely fine to be scared and wanted to run. However, you did not."

"But sir, You-Know-Who wanted to finish me off—"

"Ariane, call him Seredemort, always use the proper name. Using another name will only increase the fear."

"He…he didn't die, did he?"

"Yes, unfortunately. Perhaps he is somewhere out there, finding another substitute. He will always find his way to live on."

"Sir, I was just wondering, but I don't know—"

"Ask, I may be able to answer you."

"Why would I have the shield? It somehow works when I face mortal peril."

"Have you ever wondered about your family?"

"Sort of," said Ariane with uncertainty. "Hugo calls me a pure-blood, and Firenze says I am a descendent of Ravenclaw. What does it mean?"

"It means Rowena Ravenclaw is one of your ascendants, and you have inherited the most precious gift."

"You mean the shield? Do my parents have it too? There might be some Ravenclaws out there being one of Rowena Ravenclaw's descendents. They would have inherited it too."

"No, Ariane. Only you. You are selected."

"Why me?"

"You have inherited almost everything from Rowena Ravenclaw, the appearance, the wits, the creativity, the unusual memory, and even her high-degree of self-esteem."

Dumbledore peered into her eyes through his spectacles, and Ariane blushed as she thought of Hugo.

"It seems that Rowena Ravenclaw has chosen you to have her gift, the gift that could protect you even when you are an inch from death."

"Why did the sorting hat considered putting me in Slytherin if I have such quality of Ravenclaw?"

"You have Slytherin blood in you, the sheer determination and resourcefulness."

"So I should be in Slytherin!"

"The sorting does not only consider your qualities, it also considers what your heart desires. So it is completely normal that you are in Ravenclaw while having Slytherin's quality."

"Sir, I heard that Professor Snape had loved my mother, did he? But my mother hated him."

"It is all about the high-degree of self-esteem. Unlike you, your mother did not forgive him because he called your mother prissy."  
"He what?"

"Your mother did not forgive him since then. I would say it is an impulsive behaviour."

Dumbledore got up and grabbed a pack of Bertie Blott's Every Flavour Bean.

"Gifts from friends and admirers," said Dumbledore. "I used to have the beans when I was young, see if I can get a chocolate flavour…"

He took a brown bean and put the bean into his mouth. Then he choked a little and said, "Mmm…dog food…not bad."

Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was a nice woman, but very strict.

"Just five minutes," Ariane pleaded.

"Absolutely not, you need rest."

"But you let Professor Dumbledore in..."

"Well, of course, that was the headmaster, it was different. You need rest."

"I am resting, look, lying down and everything. Oh, please, Madam Pomfrey..."

"Oh, very well," she said. "But five minutes only."

And she let Claudia and Hugo in.

"Anne!"

Hugo and Claudia ran to her bed and smiled.

"We saw dead unicorns everywhere, and we head to the owlery to send Dumbledore an owl. And we met him at the hall, and he left to the forest after we told him you're still in there."

"You've missed the best Quidditch match ever, we beat Gryffindor two hundred points ahead. You should have seen it," said Claudia.

"Which house's leading?" asked Ariane.

"Slytherin. We are third, two hundred points behind Slytherin because Dan wrecked Snape's dungeon accidentally and set fire on the Slytherins, deducting one hundred and fifty each time."

"You'd better get well soon, we're having the end-of-term feast tomorrow," said Hugo.

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT!" she said firmly.

After a good night's sleep, Ariane felt nearly back to normal.

"Please Madam Pomfrey, let me go to the feast."

"Professor Dumbledore allows you to go," she said stiffly.

Ariane made his way down to the end-of-year feast alone that night. She had been held up by Madam Pomfrey's fussing about, insisting on giving her one last checkup, so the Great Hall was already full. It was decked out in the Slytherin colours of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning the house cup for the third year in a row. A huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table.

When Ariane walked in there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. He slipped into a seat between Claudia and Hugo at the Ravenclaw table and tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at her.

Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's annoying babbling before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts...

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty points; in third, Ravenclaw, with three hundred and seventy-two; Gryffindor has four hundred and six and Slytherin, five hundred and two points."

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. Harry could see Maure banging his goblet on the table.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. The Slytherins' smiles faded a little.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes...

"First - to Mr. Hugo Higgins..."

Hugo went red in the face; he looked embarrassed.

"...for his critical thinking, I award Ravenclaw house thirty-five points."

Ravenclaw cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver

At last there was silence again.

"Second - to Miss Claudia Walker... for her courage and loyalty, I award Ravenclaw house thirty-five points."

Claudia smiled at the other Ravneclaws; Ariane beamed at her and showed a thumb-up. Ravneclaws up and down the table were beside themselves - they were a seventy points up. "Third - to Miss Ariane Larsen..." said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "...for pure intellect and bravery, I award Ravenclaw house sixty points."

The din was deafening. Ariane added up the points knew that Gryffindor now had five hundred and two points - exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the house cup - if only Dumbledore had given Ariane just one more point.

Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.

"There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award twenty points to Mr. Daniel Crawford, for his sheer courage."

Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place, so loud was the noise that erupted from the Ravenclaw table. Ariane, Claudia, and Hugo stood up to yell and cheer as Daniel, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Ravenclaw before. Ariane, still cheering, saw Maure, who was biting his lips and nodded at Ariane out of politeness.

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, "we need a little change of decoration."

He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became blue and the silver became bronze; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a soaring raven took its place. Snape was shaking Professor Flitwick's hand, with a horrible, forced smile.

It was the best evening of Ariane's life, better than having excellent results in exams, or Christmas, or knocking out an Occamy... she would never, ever forget tonight.

Ariane had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. To their great surprise, both she and her friends passed with good marks, even Daniel scraped through, his good Charms mark making up for his hopeless Potions marks. They had hoped that Glupp and Durak, who were almost as stupid as they were mean, might be thrown out, but they had passed, too.

And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Daniel's puffskein was found lurking in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays ("I always hope they'll forget to give us these," said the twins sadly); Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats; pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took quite a while for them all to get off the platform. An old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't attract much attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and scaring the muggles.

"You must come and stay this summer," said Claudia, "both of you - I'll send you an owl."

"Thanks," said Ariane, "Then I don't have to talk with the muggle next to me about magic."

Midnight, who had been on her shoulder since leaving Hogwarts, meowed with satisfication.

People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back to the muggle world. Some of them called:

"Bye, Anne!"

"See you, Larsen!"

"Still famous," said Claudia, grinning at her.

"Not really," said Ariane.

The three passed through the gates. To her delight, Ariane's parents were waving at her. Feeling like a little child again, she ran towards them.

"How's school, my little puffskein?" asked Mr. Larsen.

"Never better."

Midnight meowed again and nuzzled Ariane.

"Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Larsen," said Claudia.

"Hi, Claudia."

"Can Anne come and stay with us for summer?"

"Of course she can," replied Mrs. Larsen. "It's good that Anne makes new friends, she will be bored much if she shuts herself in her room."

"Have a nice holiday!" said Claudia and she hurried off to her parents.

Ariane smiled and walked out of the station, enjoying the warm sunny day in London with her parents.

* * *

Hey everyone, thank you for your support. I know this piece of work is quite not right but at least I have tried. (I am not a good HP writer, so I cannot write like JKR.) But anyway, thank you for reading it. Also, if you don't mind, please leave a review or favourite or follow. Here is the website to my newest fanfc of the Hugner Games. If you have time, please read it and leave a review on telling me how the story is (I have not finished the whole fanfic so your comment can change the story).

Here's the link.

s/10376743/1/The-Hunger-Games


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